Kingdom Hearts Obscuritas
by Sullen Frog
Summary: Though Master Xehanort's plans for the X-blade and Kingdom Hearts have been thwarted, and Ven delivered to a place of safety while he recuperates, Aqua's work is not yet done. Aqua-centric, spoilers for BbS and Final Mix.
1. Prologus

'Ello, 'ello, 'ello, ; long time, no see. As some of you may have inferred, my other story, **Neon Genesis Evangelion-Nocturne**, is presently on hiatus. I do intend to get back to that story eventually and continue from where it last left off-in fact, the second and third chapters are floating around, partially complete, in my hardrive somewhere-but unfortunately, between adjusting to university life and a number of other factors, my inspiration for that front has fled.

Fortunately, I have found a new muse; after watching some of the new content in _Birth By Sleep Final Mix_, the inspiration for a tale leapt unbidden into my mind. This story begins as an adaptation of both the ending of Final Episode from Aqua's point of view, as well as the new Secret Episode, and will continue on to chronicle her long and lonely sojourn through the Realm of Darkness. Along the way, she may meet some faces and see some sights that you won't expect; you'll just have to read on to find out.

I sincerely hope you enjoy the tale I've crafted; feel free to leave any comments and opinions you may have after reading. And now, ladies and gentlemen, it's time for the show to begin!

**Obligatory legal disclaimer: I own every game in the Kingdom Hearts series save _Birth by Sleep_, _Re:coded_, and the various Final Mixes. The series itself and all its subsidiary rights, of course, is jointly owned by the House of Mouse and the man in Japan with a thing for zippers and belts.**

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**Kingdom Hearts Obscuritas**

**Prologus**

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Darkness. It was everywhere. It pressed in on her from all sides, smothering what little light she could conjure. It obscured the path ahead and the path behind, leaving her blind save for what little distance she could see directly ahead, and every now and then strange shapes, enormous polyps of a gray spongy matter limned with faintly glowing stripes of ghostly blue, reared out of the shadows as she walked past before vanishing just as quickly as they came.

Aqua was by no means claustrophobic, and her training under Master Eraqus had well prepared her for the dangers of the dark, so she was not afraid. She had endured hardships far greater than stumbling blind through the darkness in the last few weeks, and since Vanitas' defeat at her hands, the Unversed had vanished as if they had never existed; the dark held no fear for the blue-haired Keyblade Master.

Even so, the young woman had been down here for quite some time—days, weeks, who could tell with any certainty?—and the monotony of her daily existence had begun to grate. More than once on her trek to find a way out of the Realm of Darkness, Aqua's mind had begun to play tricks on her, and more than once she had caught herself jumping at shadows. Further, while the lightless desolation she wandered appeared empty and lifeless, at times she found herself wondering if she was truly as alone as she presumed; in moments of fatigue, she heard snatches of what might have been the soft pitter-patter of tiny feet, and seen tiny, momentary glimmers that might have been golden eyes peering out at her from within the darkness whenever she went to sleep.

She was not afraid of the dark, but Aqua couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched. Maybe it was just fatigue: the elegant young keybearer had not eaten or drank so much as a single crumb or a droplet of water in she didn't even know how long, so maybe those yellow eyes were just spots swimming before her vision, her body's way of letting her know that she needed rest. It wasn't exactly a pretty solution—if anything, it meant that she really needed to get some nourishment, and fast—but it was better than the alternative.

The thought of gold eyes brought a momentary pang to her heart, and the memory of her last encounter with Terra surged unbidden to the fore. Their battle had been frantic and awful in its savagery, and it pained her to know what had become of her friend after they got separated at the Keyblade Graveyard. The silver-haired, gold-eyed monster which Terra had become may have been confused and amnesic, but there was no mistaking that diabolical grey blade, no denying that the evil in his eyes had been that of Master Xehanort; how he had come to possess her friend and fellow apprentice, the blue-haired girl could not say. Reluctantly, she had concluded that no matter how much he appeared to be Terra, he was still a great threat; and so, with no other option and for the good of all, she had summoned Bright Crest and crossed blades with the renegade Keyblade Master.

During the battle, however, it had become apparent that some part of Terra still existed within this new menace; she had had her doubts at points, but her suspicions had only been confirmed when 'Xehanort' had seized up as though locked in an internal struggle. She had urged Terra to fight him off and break free, to remember who he was, but before he could do so Xehanort had stabbed himself with his Keyblade and lost consciousness; what other effects this had had on his heart—on Terra's heart—were not clear, but the blade itself had disintegrated before Aqua's very eyes and Terra fell, insensate, into a dark portal, dragged down by the very guardian which had been assisting him not a minute earlier. Even in her horror, however, Aqua had realized that not all hope was lost; there was still a chance, however remote, that her friend could still be saved.

And so, without any thought to her own safety, the blue-haired Keyblade Master had leapt into the abyss after Terra, determined to save him at all cost.

Alas, he had fallen too far, sunk too deep; the brunet apprentice had almost been out of reach when Aqua finally caught him, and the distance was too great for her glider to traverse before the rapidly-shrinking portal to the Realm of Light closed, leaving them stranded here. There had only been one possible solution, only one road that would not have left them trapped in the infinite darkness for all eternity; Aqua had shed her armour, though it was her only defence against the darkness and returned her Keyblade to its original form. Then, using her magic, she had impelled Rainfell and the armour back to the surface, streaking through the portal like a shooting star, an unconscious Terra in hand, just before the portal collapsed.

Aqua had fallen into the cold, yawning darkness just after witnessing their escape, though she had done so with a smile; Terra was safe. And yet, her victory was bittersweet; even though she had successfully rescued one friend, she had failed to fulfill her promise to another, and as the last glimmer of light from Radiant Garden had faded into oblivion, she had asked Ven's forgiveness for not being able to return.

This, of course, had led directly to her present circumstances. After some time—it might have been days, or minutes—spent unconscious, the blue-haired young woman had come to in a strange place; she had been lying in the middle of a cold stone path, just barely wide enough for three people to walk abreast, that fell away precipitously on either side and terminated in a large, smooth cliff face that seemed to stretch on and on in all directions. Bereft of any other options, Aqua had opted to follow the path and see where it led; perhaps she might find some means of escape along the way.

Thus had her sojourn through the realm of darkness begun. She had walked the path for an unknowable span of time, its twisting, serpentine trail never forking or deviating, and stopped only to rest. Her sole companion on this long trek had been the howling wind, an inconstant presence that came whenever it pleased and gave the dark realm a touch of foreboding, a tinge of melancholy. At first, Aqua had walked with the late Master Eraqus' Keyblade in hand, but the Master Keeper felt strange and alien in her hands; she felt as though the simplistic skeleton key of a Keyblade was scrutinizing her, demanding to know who she was to be wielding so noble and powerful a weapon; and though she had long ago attained the rank of Keyblade Master and had inherited the land and blade of her mentor, it was not uncommon for the young woman to find herself in concord with the blade's seeming doubt. In the end, she had chosen not to carry the venerable Keyblade unless it was absolutely necessary.

The more time passed, the more she began to wonder what was happening in the Realm of Light in her absence. What had happened to Terra after she had rescued him? Was he safe? Did he remember who he was? Had Mickey and Master Yen Sid managed to find him? And was Ventus still alright, ensconced within the new world Aqua had made from the remains of the Land of Departure? She had no way to know, and as her sojourn continued she began to despair of ever finding answers to these questions, along with ever finding a way out.

"How long have I been down here?" she wondered aloud, if only to hear herself talk. The sound of her own voice was a salve against the increasingly grim mood which had fallen over her, a reminder to the Keyblade Master that she still existed and that her interminable journey was not merely the dying dream of a madwoman. Small comfort, though—if these events were real, then she wouldn't be able to just wake up and end the nightmare.

Ahead of her, the path had started to widen; from what little Aqua could see in the perpetual gloom, the winding track now seemed to be at least fifteen feet across, if not more; a decent spot to rest, with no risk of accidentally rolling off into the abyss should she turn over in her sleep, as had almost happened once already. And the idea of rest was very, very appealing to the blue-haired warrior mage; already she had walked until her feet felt as though they would fall off, and a deep fatigue had settled into her bones and her soul.

With that thought in her mind, Aqua had just begun to slow down when the first monster appeared.

It had started so simply at first; a faint and innocuous sound, like a stream bubbling at pressure through a narrow gap, had emanated from somewhere ahead and to her left. Aqua frowned at this new, unfamiliar noise, wondering what had caused it as she fixed her azure gaze in the direction of its origin. Some sort of vapour—a thick gas, or maybe a miasma of some kind—swirled in the abyss a short distance away, curling more rapidly and with greater agitation as the sound intensified, and then something enormous arose from the gulf, starting large and only getting larger as it reared up to its full height.

Aqua gasped and drew back a pace as the titanic beast loomed overhead, summoning Master Keeper to her hand as she did so. It was monolithic in size, and vaguely humanoid, featuring a pair of long, muscular arms attached to a torso and a head. A vast, gaping hole in the shape of a heart yawned form its groin to the underside of its ribs, allowing the Keyblade Master an unobstructed view of the darkness on the other side, and a pair of disproportionately small, seemingly vestigial wings fluttered faintly from just behind the creature's shoulders. Strange tendrils that might have been hair or something else entirely flicked and lashed like striking vipers, and of its face—assuming it had one—only a pair of baleful yellow orbs could be seen. Aqua fought to suppress a shiver as she met the dark giant's gaze—there was no intellect, no reason, no sapience to be found in those cruel amber eyes; there was only animal cunning and a raw, insatiable hunger that was the sole driving force of the beast's horrid existence. It stank of the dark, of cruelty and malice, and as it loomed over her like the demons of a child's nightmares Aqua realized that this beast was a predator, and she its prey.

_Is it an Unversed?_ she wondered silently, the words for a spell already forming in her mind. The dark colossus would be a difficult opponent, that much was beyond question; but the blue-haired mage was reasonably confident that she would be able to beat this monster, if not necessarily without harm.

Before she could swing her Keyblade and begin the battle, however, Aqua heard the same sound bubbling from somewhere behind her. Shock and fear washed over the girl as she turned around, hoping against hope that it was just her imagination, that the noise might have been something else.

In this, she was to be disappointed. A second giant, identical to the first in all ways, arose from the shadows in a cloud of dark vapour to tower silently over her on the opposite side of the path.

_Oh, no…_

Aqua had not even had time to begin contemplating how she would get out of this mess when the sound of the running stream split the silence twice more, and as the third and fourth colossi reared up on either side of the trail, effectively trapping her in their midst, she realized that this was the end. Even if she was strong and agile enough to defeat one of the ink-skinned behemoths, the other three would be able to pick her off with ease. There would be no close shaves, no miraculous escapes this time; this place would be her grave.

Even though she was horrified by this turn of events and teetering on the brink of despair, the realization that she was about to die brought a weary smile to her lips; if nothing else, the end of her life would also put an end to her nightmare. Even so, satisfaction warred with regret in her mind; it looked like she wouldn't be able to keep her promise to Ven after all…

The four giants continued to loom over her, their hair-pseudopodia twitching silently like the tentacles of a brood of enormous octopi, and Aqua realized that they had not attacked yet because they did not consider her a threat. They wanted to play with their food.

Well, she wasn't about to give them that satisfaction. She lowered Master Keeper to her side, allowing the magic which she had been about to sling the first's monster's way to dissipate harmlessly into nothing, and then dismissed the venerable Keyblade to the other realm; no sense letting the last trace of her late master's legacy die along with her, after all.

"Maybe I _should_ fade into the darkness here," she muttered, accepting her fate with quiet dignity and grace.

Slowly, ponderously, the first of the dark titans curled the taloned fingers of its right hand into a massive fist, and it drew back its arm in preparation to unleash a killing blow. Aqua sighed and closed her eyes, bracing herself for the coming pain; at the very least, judging by the size of its mighty hand and the strength which infused her killer's muscular limbs, she could take solace in the fact that her death would be quick.

Because of this, she did not witness what happened next.

A faint chime rang out, and in the distance two specks of light suddenly flared to life. They streaked towards the path, fireflies on a crusade of the greatest import, tinkling softly and trailing sparkles that glittered faintly in the omnipresent darkness.

The first giant, so fixated on crushing the Keybearer before it, had no time to react; just as it threw the punch which would have turned Aqua into a fine pink smear on the path, one of the specks flew through the gaping hole in its lower torso. A bright flash of light erupted from within the heart-shaped gap, and the beast staggered as if it had been struck in the back, its glowing yellow eyes widening faintly in surprise as it dissolved into a cloud of black vapour.

Startled by the sudden noise, Aqua looked up just in time to witness the giant disappear altogether. The blue-haired Keyblade Master looked up at the specks of light in confusion as they streaked overheard, whirling to continue tracking them. _What in—_

As if responding to her unspoken question, the specks dimmed faintly, allowing her to see what lay at the core of their light. To her shock, she realized that it was a pair of Keyblades—and not just any Keyblades, either; she knew the brass shaft, teal hand guard and hammerlike teeth of Earthshaker almost as well as she knew its wielder, and the distinctive off-center shaft and reversed teeth of Wayward Wind were immediately recognizable to the young mage.

She watched, astonished, as the two keys flew through the air under their own power like angels of salvation, smiting first one monster, then the next. All three of the remaining giants had been felled by the time the first had fully dissipated, and then her friends' Keyblades flew off into the dark, where they quickly vanished from sight.

Aqua stared after the retreating keys, too stunned to speak for a moment. _What did…how did…is that even…_

Her incoherent ramblings quickly gave way to relief, and then happiness, and a joyful laugh escaped her lips. Even if they were scattered across the worlds, her friends were still looking out for her just as she looked out for them.

The blue-haired girl gasped then, as she realized that for the first time in a long time she was smiling. She brought her fingers up to her mouth, feeling the contours of her lips as if to confirm that the expression was real.

"I guess it's been so long," she mused, "that I almost forgot how to smile."

Fairly grinning now, Aqua reached down to retrieve her wayfinder. The star-shaped charm was still intact, kept safe throughout all the turmoil of her recent quest, and as she fondly regarded its cerulean petals the young Keyblade Master imagined that she could see her friends at her side. There was Terra, giving her his trademark goofy smile; Ven, standing with his hands resting on the back of his head and a grin on his face; Master Eraqus, nodding at her with pride and approval; Mickey, so bright and eager to prove himself; Cinderella, Jaq and the other denizens of the Castle of Dreams; Snow White, the seven dwarfs and her prince; Prince Phillip, Aurora and the three good fairies; the wise old Merlin and Scrooge McDuck; Queen Minnie, Horace Horsecollar and the other cheerful residents of Disney Town; Phil, Herc and Zack, all ready for another adventure; Experiment 626, happily cradling his makeshift wayfinder; Peter Pan and the Lost Boys, floating in the air and having a good time; the stern Master Yen Sid, and two others whom she didn't recognize; that young girl from Radiant Garden, Kairi, bright and cheerful as the flowers in her hands; the boy, Riku, trying to look tough with his hands cocked on his hips and a smirk on his lips; and finally Sora, resting his head in his hands as he flashed her a cheesy and heartfelt grin.

Aqua chuckled to herself as the vision dissipated, staring out into the darkness and tracing the path ahead with a new hope in her azure eyes.

"There is always a way."

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And cut. Cue _Simple and Clean_.

That's a wrap for now, folks; there's more to come, though, so stay tuned!


	2. Chapter One: Nuit dans la Noirceur

Hello, folks; here's the second chapter of _Kingdom Hearts Obscuritas_. It's at this point that I begin to include material from _Birth by Sleep Final Mix_ into the story, so if you don't want the events of the Secret Episode to be spoiled, I suggest you go no further. The next chapter or two should be up by next Sunday**,** and any subsequent chapters will most likely come in weekly updates.

Now that we've got my updating schedule out of the way, let's get on with the show!

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**Kingdom Hearts Obscuritas**

**Chapter One: Nuit dans la noirceur**

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Some time had passed; Aqua had slept twice more since her encounter with the four giants, and today she awakened in good spirits. The rest had done her a world of good, and no monsters had attacked her since that one encounter; whether this was because there were no other such creatures or because they feared sharing her assailants' fate, the blue-haired Keyblade Master could not say. In any case, such possibilities did not bother her overmuch at the moment, for she was too cheerful to let anything dampen her mood; she knew, deep in her heart, that she was on the right track.

The young mage plucked her wayfinder from its place on her belt and regarded the cerulean, star-shaped charm with no small degree of fondness. Today it glowed faintly with a gentle inner light, a soft radiance that warmed her even through the fabric of her fingerless leather gloves, and its kindly heat seemed to suffuse her entire body, making her proof against the pervasive chill of this dark realm.

This fact brought a warm smile to Aqua's face, for it meant that the charm was working. Before the start of her journey, she had cast a spell on the wayfinder and its two counterparts that would allow their bearers to form an unbreakable connection between their hearts and those of their friends; in this way, they could never be kept apart. The gentle glow of the azure star signified that one such heart was drawing near, and its warmth and intensity spoke of the purity of that heart's light. Such a warm radiance could only have come from one of the Princesses of Heart, and as the young woman closed her eyes and concentrated, she was able to discern which one her wayfinder had detected.

Her smile widened with joy as she realized who it was. No less a figure than Cinderella herself, who the young Keyblade Master had saved from both the cruel caprices of her wicked stepmother and the firebombs of a vicious Unversed early on in her journey. Aqua had admired Cinderella for her incredible determination in the face of adversity, and the two had forged a powerful bond of friendship rather quickly; the fact that she would be able to see such a good friend again, and in such short time, excited the blue-haired warrior to no end.

_Had it really been so long ago when I set out?_ The young Keyblade Master wondered wistfully. Back then, things had been so simple; she had just ventured out into the worlds for the first time, not on any sort of epic quest, but to find Ventus and retrieve him. The universe was a dangerous place, especially with the Unversed on the loose, and she had needed to find the boy she thought of as a little brother before his youthful exuberance and inexperience got him in trouble. _And look how that turned out…_

She dispelled that dark train of thought almost as soon as it entered her mind; no sense brooding on the past when the end of her journey was in sight. Cinderella's heart would be her salvation; Cinderella's light would show Aqua the way out of this dark and dismal realm. Perhaps then she would be able to find out what had happened to Terra and Ven since her arrival in the abyss…and just how long she had been wandering in the dark.

With this thought in mind, the young Keyblade Master set out, a spring in her step and a smile on her lips. Not only would she be free, she would finally have a chance to eat something. She wouldn't necessarily have to impose herself on Cinderella—surely she must be married to her prince by now—by staying at the castle and eating food from their stores; her training under Master Eraqus had included instructions on how to survive in the wilderness away from civilization, and she knew what plants could harm her and which were edible; further, she had crafted a simple enchantment that could purify any water gathered from a pond, stream or lake and make it suitable for human consumption. It might not be the most palatable meal she had ever eaten, but at this point Aqua couldn't care less; so long as she managed to get food and water in her belly, the blue-haired young woman would be happy.

Even so, there was nothing to prevent her from visiting her friend and getting reacquainted with the new princess; she wouldn't mind having someone to talk to after all this time alone, after all. And the fairy godmother too, for that matter; that kindly old enchantress had been a great help to Aqua during her last visit to the Castle of Dreams, and if anyone could help the cerulean-haired girl to find out what had happened to her friends, it would be her. Besides, the Keyblade Master had been unable to transform Master Keeper into its rider form thus far; she would need assistance if she wanted to get off-world, and the fairy godmother would be just the one to help.

_Calm down, Aqua,_ she chided herself. _You aren't out of the woods just yet; take things slow, one step at a time, and don't get so fixated on the future that you can't see what's happening in the present…_

The warrior mage paused and cast a glance down the path ahead, squinting into the dark in an effort to see what might await her. When this revealed nothing, she turned around to examine the path behind, and her eyes widened a fraction of an inch as she caught sight of a pair of beady yellow orbs hastily retreating into the darkness and out of sight.

_There, you see? The little bugger almost got the drop on you. Don't let your guard down just yet; this is the final stretch, and if anything is going to happen, it will happen now._

Aqua decided to take her own advice, and held out her free hand. A brilliant light flared within her palm, its intense radiance nearly blinding her after spending so long in the all-pervasive darkness, and when it cleared a moment later the simple, functional hilt of her late mentor's Keyblade lay within her grasp. If anything decided to come at her, she would be ready to face it with cold steel and powerful magic.

The young Keyblade Master turned and continued down the trail, holding her wayfinder aloft in one hand. She used the star-shaped charm like a compass attuned to the light of Cinderella's heart rather than the northern pole of a world's magnetic field, taking the path that caused its gentle luminance to intensify ever so gradually. Such efforts probably were not that necessary, given that the path had never split or forked even once during her long sojourn, but Aqua felt it was best not to take any chances.

She had been walking like this for some time, the growling of her stomach a stark reminder of her lack of nutrition, when the ground started to shake. A loud rumble split the silence as the path and the strange polyps visible to either side shuddered violently, and Aqua threw out her arms as she stumbled and staggered in an effort to maintain her balance.

"An earthquake?" she wondered aloud, casting a wary glance upward. She had no idea if the sky over the path was clear or obstructed by a ceiling, but if that was the case, she didn't want to risk getting crushed beneath a falling boulder for being inattentive.

No rocks fell, but that brought the warrior mage scant comfort. As the rumbling intensified and built to a dull roar, a number of tiny specks of white light became visible in the sky above, crackling and coalescing into a single sphere of pale radiance that rapidly expanded until it was a miniature sun, an elliptical patch of radiance casting back the infinite darkness.

Aqua's eyes widened with realization. No, it wasn't a sun; it was a hole. A tear in the fabric of reality, a breach connecting the Realm of Darkness with the Realm of Light, and even as she watched, stunned and slack jawed, what seemed to be a geyser of shadowy matter, a vile plume of noxious miasma, surged up from the abyss below to flood through the aperture in a veritable eruption of dark ejecta.

A low whine which seemed to emanate from her wayfinder drew the Keybearer's attention away from this awful shadow geyser, and before her startled eyes the light suffusing her charm faded and went out.

"I have no idea what's going on," the young woman ventured, her voice thick with worry as she glanced back at the fountain of darkness. "But I seriously doubt it's anything good…"

Aqua's eyes traced the geyser down to its seeming point of origin, noting that it had erupted some distance ahead. Even as she contemplated what this strange phenomenon could signify, the flow of dark matter slowed to a trickle, and the hole collapsed in on itself in a spectacular implosion.

Deciding that investigating the bizarre fountain would be the most prudent course of action, the young Keyblade Master set off at a brisk trot, Keyblade ready in hand and eyes alert for any potential trouble that might come her way. After a few minutes, she noticed that the path ahead was widening and changing. No longer was it a single, winding road on a flat plane; now it took on the aspect of a chaotic and broken landscape, with irregular cliffs piled atop irregular cliffs and sheer escarpments in every direction, stretching far higher than she could jump. Given their baffling height, the blue-haired mage briefly wondered how she had been able to see the geyser's source; such towering cliffs would surely have obstructed the view, right?

_Unless they sprang up while I was moving…_

Aqua dismissed this notion as ridiculous, but the azure-haired girl could find no other explanation for this odd incongruity. Perhaps the laws of reality were different here in the Realm of Darkness; it would certainly explain a few things, like why there were enormous polyps sprouting from seemingly nowhere.

Her mind wandering thusly, Aqua continued to walk, following the path at ground level for now. The upper tiers of this strange canyon could keep their mysteries; even had she felt like exploring their unknown spans and depths—an idea she was staunchly against, given the strange things that lurked in the shadows and her desire to learn the cause of that strange plume—she had no way to scale them. Still, the strange properties of this world intrigued her, and she allowed herself to trot along the path on automatic pilot while she wrestled with this unusual conundrum.

This inattention would almost cost her dearly. She did not even notice the creatures until she was practically on top of them, at which point she drew to a halt and eyed them warily.

There were three of them, stooping in the middle of the path and barring her passage. Their bodies were small and childlike, with large round heads and small arms and legs, the former of which sported three-fingered hands which would spasm every now and then, and the latter terminating in toeless feet that seemed more like shoes than any natural appendage. They squatted low to the ground, their backs hunched as if unable to support the weight of their large, spherical heads, and as the creatures swept their craniums back and forth as if scanning the area, Aqua realized that they had no faces—just a pair of unblinking yellow eyes that gleamed in the dark, and a pair of antennae that twitched gently with a sound like scratching paper.

The inky-skinned creatures could not have been higher than her knee, and if someone had asked her to describe them in one word she would have said cute or adorable, but there was something about their simple gait, something in those gleaming amber orbs, that told Aqua these small, beetle-like things were not to be trifled with. Though they seemed childlike and curious in nature, she recognized the sinister glitter of animal cunning and all-consuming hunger which she had seen in the gaze of the dark giant. These creatures, like their larger kin, were predators, and she was their prey.

The attack came without warning—one second they had been squatting there, staring blankly up at her, and the next the three imps were in motion, startling Aqua with their unexpected speed as they rapidly closed the distance.

The warrior mage brought Master Keeper up into a guard position, ready to counter their moves. Though she had never encountered such monsters before, these strange goblins bore a faint similarity to the Flood strain of Unversed, and Aqua was willing to bet that they were of similar behaviour and fortitude. She wouldn't need magic for this; cold steel would be sufficient to deal with them.

Three things happened then, as each of the shadows proceeded to attack the Keyblade master in a different way. The first from the right made a bounding leap, its small legs carrying it into a surprisingly long arc that would take it past her face, while the one on the left came in low and clawed at her ankles with its surprisingly sharp talons. The third placed its hands on the ground and seemed to flatten itself out, becoming a literal shadow that flowed across the path towards Aqua at an incredibly rapid speed.

Aqua swung Master Keeper up to intercept the airborne goblin with its shaft, knocking her first assailant out of the sky. She then sidestepped to avoid the claws of the second creature, spinning her leg and transferring the resultant momentum into a powerful swing that caught the imp in the side of its head and knocked it sprawling across the trail.

The Keybearer came to a halt then, her eyes darting about as she tried to locate the third monster. _Where had it—_

"Gah!"

Aqua cried out and staggered forward as a sharp pain suddenly blossomed along her spine. The little bugger had popped out of the ground behind her and punished her inattention with a swift slash to her bare upper back. The injury had not been deep or severe enough to permanently damage anything important, but it still hurt like you wouldn't believe.

Aqua leapt away from her cunning little assailant and spun around, bringing Master Keeper down on its head in a powerful overhand strike that cleaved the imp in twain. "Take that!" she cried, flourishing her blade as the creature's halves dissolved into thick gouts of a noxious black vapour.

She had no time to exult in her victory, alas, for even as she straightened up one of the remaining goblins tackled her legs out from under her, bringing the blue-haired warrior mage to the ground with a hiss of pain. Of course she had to land on her back…

Noticing that the creature was still tangled within her legs, and not wanting to get blindsided by the third monster, Aqua lashed out with a vicious kick. The metal sole of one armoured shoe caught the beast right between its eyes, snapping its head back to an angle which would have been fatal for any normal creature and causing it to stagger backwards, insensate.

Aqua levelled her Keyblade at the stunned monster as she rose to a sitting position, gathering magical energy to unleash upon her opponent in a deadly spell. With a loud shout of "Freeze!" , a large chunk of impossibly cold ice erupted from the tip of her blade to impale the imp in its chest. The crystal then expanded rapidly in a sudden explosion, shredding the monster into a dozen chilled pieces which quickly dissolved into nothing.

The Keyblade Master leapt to her feet with a springing kick and turned rapidly, her eyes roaming the darkness in search of the final shade.

It came at her from the side, carried there by a powerful leap before raking at her chest with its talons. Fortunately Aqua had managed to turn in time to deflect the strike, and the blow which would have torn open her chest landed harmlessly on the segmented bands of her elbow armour instead. Even so, the impact still spun her around and put her off-balance; for such a small creature, these shadows could hit surprisingly hard.

Fortunately, the creature had been stunned just as she had, and as she regained her footing the young mage decided not to give it a chance to recover.

"Farewell!" she cried, surging forward as a spell enveloped her. Aqua's feet did not quite touch the ground; rather, she seemed to skate along a few inches up in the air, hovering for increased mobility. A ring of thick, transparent hexagonal panels sprang into existence around her as she blew past the disoriented shade, pummelling it with a wall of kinetic force that left her opponent battered and bruised. If there had been any doubt that the creature was finished as it tottered weakly on its feet, on the verge of falling over, the ring's segments burst outwards in a small explosion, and a hexagon or three tore through its body like enormous pieces of shrapnel.

The young woman alighted on the ground just before the final beast faded away in a rank miasma, and as the dark vapour dissipated she straightened up with a wince. Aqua reached back gently, trying not to pull at her injured back any more than necessary as she tried to determine the full extent of her injuries. She shuddered as her fingertips made contact with a very sore gash, and after a few moments of gentle, careful probing she concluded that a set of three parallel claw marks rang across her back, from the right shoulder to a short distance above the left hip.

_I suppose it's fortunate that there wasn't any fabric to get in and contaminate the wound,_ she thought as she held her Keyblade aloft. _Still, my upper back is incredibly exposed without any armour or clothing like that; I'll either need to do a better job of watching it in the future, or find a way to cover and protect it._

"Heal," she said softly, channelling potent magical power through the shaft of Master Keeper.

A warm green glow surrounded and suffused her body at this word, flowing through her veins and soothing her aches and pains. Aqua let out a relieved sigh as the pain in her back diminished, and when the light had faded away she rolled her shoulders and rotated her arms a few times to make sure everything was in working order. Truly a wonderful thing, Cure spells; even if they didn't supplement the need for food, drink and rest, as long as you had even an inkling of magical affinity and the knowledge of the basic healing arts, you could easily treat all minor wounds and even reduce a grievous, life-threatening injury to a manageable injury.

The Keyblade Master reached back and ran her fingertips—still caked with blood from a moment ago—over the place where the gashes had been. She smiled at what she felt there: no horrid rents, no slick gore, no bumpy scabs, not even scars to mar her epidermis; just smooth skin, clean and unblemished save for the dried blood she had doubtless smeared across her back. Oh, well; that could be dealt with by taking a quick dip in a stream, so no worries there…

The cerulean-haired mage's smile faded, and her gaze hardened. _Don't get ahead of yourself again, Aqua; you underestimated your foe, and you got lucky just now. If you let your guard down a second time…well, let's just say that even a Cure spell won't be able to help you if you're dead._

With this thought in mind, Aqua pressed on into the darkness ahead, making sure to keep her gaze and her mind fixed on the path.

* * *

And so Aqua's foray into the Realm of Darkness begins in earnest. Yet even vigilant, how prepared can a Keybearer be against a foe she knows nothing about? What other dangers lurk in wait, ready to pounce the moment her guard drops?

You'll just have to come back next week in order to find out! In the meantime, I hope you've enjoyed this second installment of my tale; feel free to leave your comments and criticisms, should the mood take you.


	3. Chapter Two: Venator Crudelis

Hello, chaps. As promised, the third chapter of my story. Those of you who took the time to review, you have my thanks; I always appreciate feedback on my work. I hope you continue to enjoy this tale, and that the chapter you are about to read meets your expectations. And you are correct in your assessment, Riku Uzumaki; Aqua won't like what's coming at all.

And without further ado, let's get on with the show! A word of warning, though; this chapter is longer than the previous two combined, so I hope you have some free time on your hands.

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* * *

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**Kingdom Hearts Obscuritas**

**Chapter Two: **_**Venator Crudelis**_

* * *

Despite her vigilance, the next attack caught Aqua completely by surprise.

Ten minutes had passed since her encounter with the dark imps, by the Keyblade Master's reckoning, when five more of the creatures pulled themselves into existence on the path ahead, barring her progress. Having experienced just how dangerous such shades could be, the young mage decided that it would be best to end this fight before it could begin.

She held Master Keeper aloft, channelling her own potent reserves of magic into the venerable Keyblade. The goblins had not even had time to get their bearings when she let out a cry of "Gather!", and before they could react a roiling sphere of energy sprang into existence in their midst. The sudden radiance startled the creatures, and as they turned to inspect this unexpected orb of light it began to churn and pulse, emitting a noise not unlike the revving of an engine. Two smaller spheres, one red and one blue, appeared on opposite ends of the sphere, and the air rippled with the force of powerful magic as they revolved around their larger counterpart in a single orbit, two planets to a single star.

The imps, unprepared for Aqua's spell, were suddenly whisked into the air as though caught in an invisible gravitational field. They converged on the primary sphere simultaneously, slamming into each other with a wet slap and no small amount of force; then the smaller orbs began to revolve around their sun faster and faster, striking all five of the monsters repeatedly and scathing them with potent cosmic energy.

When the Magnet spell wore off a moment later, only three of the imps had managed to survive being buffeted in that onslaught, and as the primary star collapsed in on itself it sucked a third shade along with it into oblivion. The remaining pair of shadows dropped to the stone path and lay there, insensate and half-dead.

Aqua nodded to herself and moved towards her prone victims, ready to deliver the coup-de-grace with her Keyblade. _Time to finish you—_

"Offff!"

The warrior mage cried out in pain as something large and fast blindsided her from the left. Fortunately, Aqua managed to roll with the blow, and instead of landing on her side in a heap she was able to get a free hand on the ground, transferring her momentum to this new pivot point and turning her fall into an elegant cartwheel that left her standing on her feet and facing this new foe.

It floated several feet off the ground, hovering and bobbing gently despite lacking any visible means of lift or propulsion. Its body was a large, oily sphere, at least three feet in diameter, and strange appendages that might have been a pair of arms and a tail—or possibly ears; it was hard to tell—sprouted from its center mass to flop uselessly at an angle. Like all the other monsters she had encountered in the Realm of Darkness thus far, the beast sported a pair of glowing yellow eyes that leered at her with a mindless cunning and an unholy hunger, though they seemed disproportionately small compared to the bulk of its rotund body, and to her shock Aqua noticed that it was the first creature she had seen to possess a mouth.

A broad, hungry maw, full of jagged triangular teeth, that seemed looked in a perpetual and decidedly malevolent grin. The beast yawned slightly, and Aqua could see that its mouth was an abyss, an indigo void that promised nothing but annihilation for anyone or anything unfortunate enough to be caught in its depths.

The blue-haired Keyblade Master cocked her head to one side. "Alright, I've seen some fairly strange things over the last few weeks," she said. "But that is just plain _weird_. I mean, what are you even supposed to be? You're a balloon, for—whoa!"

The tarlike sphere suddenly shot forward at a startling velocity, its jaws snapping hungrily as it flew straight at Aqua's face. Having no time to dodge the beast's sudden charge, she bent over backwards—thank heaven for all those gymnastic drills Master Eraqus had had her perform in order to improve her agility—and allowed her assailant to zip by overhead, leaving her completely unharmed save for a smack to the face from its flailing tail.

The warrior mage let out a muffled "Ow!" as she straightened up, bringing a hand up to her smarting nose; a sharp pain shot through her skull at the contact, and the wet warmth of blood met her fingertips and trickled down to her lips.

_Great, a broken nose,_ she thought sourly, turning to fix a scowl on the dark sphere as it continued on its path for several metres before drawing to a slow, clumsy halt. _Just what I needed…_

Aqua levelled Master Keeper at the discombobulated beast, allowing her irritation to flow along the Keyblade's length and suffuse its shaft with a sudden and supernatural heat. "Pyre!" she yelled, her word muffled and distorted by the damage to her nasal cavities but still managing to get the point across. A trio of scorching fireballs erupted from the key's tip in rapid succession, slamming into the floating monster with incredible force three times and setting it ablaze. It had managed to survive the deadly fireballs themselves, but the flames lapping at its inky flesh proved to be the final straw. It burst like an overripe melon, showering the path in wet chunks of spongy dark matter that gave off an utterly putrid stench as they burned; fortunately for Aqua's sake, its remains quickly dissipated into clouds of dark vapour which were then blown away by a chance wind, sparing her nose any further abuse.

The blue-haired young woman sighed and relaxed her posture, confident that the fight was over—only for a pair of heavy weights to slam into her from behind, knocking her to the ground face first.

She winced as her nose made contact with the hard stone ground at what seemed like terminal velocity, waiting for the fog of pain to lift from her mind before she would even consider retaliation on her attackers. _Right, I forgot about those two…_

Aqua rolled onto her back and sprang onto her feet, eying the two remaining imps with no small degree of wariness. Though the creatures seemed to be on their last legs, as evidenced by their sluggish movements and the fact that their antennae had stopped twitching, it was clear that they still had some fight left in them. At that moment, a measure of pity wormed its way into the Keybearer's heart as she realized that these goblins had no sense of self-preservation; even beaten half to death and clearly outmatched, they would just keep throwing themselves at her until one party or the other was dead.

The mage tensed then, bringing Master Keeper up to a ready position. Despite her pity for the creatures and their deplorable, mindless state, they still intended to kill her, and she still had many promises to keep, oaths to fulfill; so that simply wasn't going to happen. She would just have to put them out of their misery.

The shadows lunged at her, and she swung her Keyblade up to the heavens. "Dunder!"

A ring of faintly-crackling electricity expanded from Aqua's waist over a wide radius, and when the goblins touched the ring two bolts of lightning plummeted from the heavens and smote them for their insolence, casting back the darkness for a brief instant and forcing the young warrior to shield her eyes from their intense luminance.

The imps, weakened as they were, stood no chance against Aqua's powerful Thundaga spell; millions of volts of an intense electrical current flooded through their small, childlike bodies for a moment, and they fairly disintegrated into twin plumes of a dark miasma, utterly destroyed.

Aqua remained vigilant, casting her gaze around the path to make certain that nothing else was about to pop out of nowhere and get the drop on her. Only when she was certain that there were no other monsters hiding in the darkness did the Keybearer relax, and two minutes and a Cure spell later, her nose was as good as new.

Satisfied that everything was in working order, she pressed on into the darkness. _You're in hostile territory, Aqua; if you want to reach your goal in one piece, keep moving and stay alert!_

* * *

Thirty minutes and four battles later, the cerulean-haired Keyblade Master noticed that the landscape was beginning to change yet again. The towering cliff faces which had surrounded her for the last little while began to even out and the path had started to widen drastically into an even plane, though the trail itself was still visible, bracketed and delineated by a pair of wide-spaced ruts. Bizarre cracks, like glowing fissures or veins, dotted the cold ground, their soft blue phosphorescence scant comfort in the dark. Strange rocks and twisted growths that might have been trees or shrubs had started to appear on either side of the road; they were few and far between at first, but as she continued on her way and the landscape continued to widen, the twisted facsimiles of florae began to crop up more and more frequently. They loomed over the path, their twisted boughs forking and intertwining like gnarled fingers, and a dense fog rolled in between their slate-grey trunks.

Aqua did not like this strange parody of a forest; the trees offered far too many opportunities for an ambush, and though she hated to admit it the sheer wrongness of the whole place unsettled her on some fundamental level. Where were the birds, nesting amidst the branches and filling the air with their songs? Where were the insects, their chirps and clicks lending a note of calm and tranquility to what should have been a pleasant stroll through the woods? Where was the wind, its cool breath rustling the leaves and the gentle touch of its zephyr fingers caressing her exposed skin? Where was the sun, its wan light casting shadows across the way?

This was not nature; it was a pitiful imitation wrought by cruel chance and fell hands. There were no birds, no insects, no wind, no babbling brooks and no sun to give her comfort and ease a growing sense of isolation and surreal madness; there was only darkness, decay and death.

Aqua put such grim thoughts from her mind as she noticed that the path widened into a broad clearing a short distance a head. She couldn't fathom its exact dimensions in the perpetual gloom, but if she had to hazard a guess the Keyblade Master would have said that the roughly circular break in the tree line must have been close to a hundred feet in diameter.

The blue-haired mage came to a halt just outside of the clearing and took a moment to consider her options. On the one hand, she could not have been far from the shadow geyser's point of origin; she reckoned that it would take her another half hour to reach the source, maybe an hour tops. On the other hand, her recent battles with those strange monsters had severely depleted her reserves of magical energy, and a deep fatigue was beginning to settle into her bones; to overcome both, she would need to rest soon, and this clearing was a tantalizing sight for sore eyes. The ground appeared reasonably smooth and flat, and its vast area ensured that she would be able to see anything approaching from within the forest long before it actually reached her. Besides, it was not like she had a supply of ethers on hand; if she ran out of mana before arriving at the geyser's source and trouble was awaiting her, Aqua would be up the creek with no canoe, so to speak. After all, she might not have been a slouch with the physical aspects of the Keyblade, but she wasn't a champion swordswoman either; unlike Ventus and Terra, her expertise lay in the realm of spell-weaving, and if she could not cast spells her odds of survival would drop dramatically.

"No sense taking an unnecessary risk," she said at length. "I'll rest here for now, and finish the journey when I'm at one-hundred percent."

Her mind made up, Aqua dismissed Master Keeper and strode into the clearing.

She had not taken ten steps when an odd sound came from somewhere to the left. The warrior mage gasped and came to a halt, fighting the urge to supress a sigh. _Can I not go for five minutes without getting attacked? _she grumbled to herself._ Five minutes, that's all I ask._

Any irritation or levity she might have felt fled her, alas, as she caught sight of a pair of small, eerie red lights bobbing through the tree line. They moved rapidly across the edge of the clearing, the low point of their arcs accompanied by a muffled thump, like the footfalls of enormous feet, and even from this distance Aqua could tell that these crimson eyes—for what else could they be?—were set a good deal taller than her own.

She summoned her late mentor's Keyblade to hand and whirled in an effort to track the orbs, her breath coming in quick, ragged gasps as adrenaline flooded her system. No, she wasn't tired anymore; she couldn't afford to be, the lights were moving so damn _fast!_ Good lord, they must have made a lap of the entire clearing—

Aqua's eyes widened in alarm as the red lights suddenly disappeared. An unsettling silence fell over the site of her potential camp, and her head darted back and forth, her gaze roaming the clearing's perimeter as she tried to find out where her mystery stalker was hiding.

The crunch of gravel beneath enormous, padded soles brought a shiver of apprehension to the young Keyblade Master's spine, and she spun around, bringing Master Keeper up in a horizontal guarding position while bracing the shaft with her other hand—just in time for something fast and dark and utterly _enormous_ to slam into her with the force a speeding freight train.

Aqua let out a stunned cry as she flew across the clearing, landing in a tangled heap thirty feet away. The warrior mage struck her head against the stone floor, hard, and everything went blurry for a second; she blinked, trying to regain her focus as she looked in the direction of her assailant.

Something that seemed like a living cloud of darkness sat at the other end of the clearing, and it billowed towards her at an incredible speed, undulating like a sine wave as it came.

_No, not a cloud,_ she realized. _A _shroud_. The monster must be cloaking itself in darkness, to keep me from seeing it properly._

The beast was almost upon her; if she did not act now it would all be over. Stifling a groan, the Keyblade Master brought up her weapon and levelled it at the beast. Gone were any concerns about conserving her magic, replaced by the more immediate concern of keeping herself alive.

It was twenty feet away and closing rapidly when a searing fireball erupted from Master Keeper and shot towards it at an impressive speed. Aqua was confident that it would not be able to evade her attack; imagine her surprise when the beast proceeded to do just that, springing over her Fission Firaga in a bounding leap that carried it above her head.

Time slowed to a crawl as her assailant arced across the sky, and through the chaotically-billowing miasma she caught the first glimpse of its true form. The creature—or at least its foremost quarter—possessed two long legs, each ending in a pair of massive paws, and a head that seemed disturbingly feline in profile. Her earlier suspicion about its red orbs was proven correct, as they glittered balefully where the monster's eyes should have been.

_Could this thing be an Unversed?_ she wondered, rising to her feet even as the monster alighted on the cold clearing floor and loped into the forest.

She dispelled that notion almost immediately, adopting a ready stance as those awful scarlet orbs flared to life and stared hungrily at her from within the tree line. This creature was unlike anything Aqua had faced before; she could almost feel the sheer, limitless depths of the darkness within its awful, shadow-shrouded form emanating from it in palpable waves, assailing her mentally as well as physically, and for the first time since her arrival in the Realm of Darkness, Aqua felt fear. Real, unrestrained, undiluted _fear_.

_This monster is darkness incarnate, a living embodiment of evil._

The creature's dark shroud expanded suddenly to envelop the clearing in its entirety, and Aqua let out a startled gasp as everything went black. All that remained visible were those horrid red eyes, bobbing gently back and forth, almost hypnotic in their rhythm, as the creature swayed; an abrupt rush of air, the crash of enormous padded feet, and suddenly even those disappeared, leaving the Keyblade Master locked in darkness absolute.

Aqua whirled about rapidly, her eyes roaming the darkness in a frenzy as she tried to find the hunter's eyes. _Where did it go?_ Her mental voice startled her with the stark panic it invested in every imagined word, every imagined syllable. _Where did it go, where did it go?_

A muffled scrape of claws against bare rock came from somewhere to her right, and Aqua brought up her Keyblade as she spun to face the sudden noise. A ball of crackling, searing flames erupted from Master Keeper's tip to streak into the darkness, briefly illuminating the small portion of the clearing. In the scant seconds she had before the fireball flew into the dead forest and out of sight, she caught a brief glimpse of an enormous silhouette, a momentary glimpse of reflected light glistening on links of metal as the beast charged towards her—

"Get back!" she shouted, and a sphere of glittering hexagonal panels sprang up to surround her in a protective cage of energy.

Even with the potent force field now between her and the dark hunter, Aqua still shuddered from the impact as one of the beast's enormous paws slammed down onto the sphere, causing it to flare as it strained to maintain its shape in face of the force being exerted against it. A low growl, so deep that it caused the young Keyblade Master's bones to vibrate in sympathy, emanated from somewhere in that vast, unfathomable darkness, and the beast's glittering red eyes flared to life less than a foot from Aqua's face.

Fear warred with disgust as a rank gust of humid air washed over her, and Aqua cartwheeled to one side as the giant brute's other paw came crashing towards her from the right; behind her, the shield collapsed, unable to take the strain.

Having no time to cast a spell, Aqua tucker herself into a roll and somersaulted towards those baleful red orbs, feeling cold flesh brush briefly against her exposed back as she passed between its legs and came to an upright position directly in front of its snout.

Acting almost on instinct, she twisted to the side, and the red glare of her assailant's hateful eyes shot past as its head snapped forward, its jaws crashing shut on thin air. The warrior mage took advantage of this distraction and struck at its head three times, each blow wringing a pained snarl from the leonine beast.

She did not have long to press her attack, unfortunately; a sudden blur of motion, a backwash of displaced air rushing in to fill a sudden void, and then the creature was gone. Aqua spun around once more, but its eyes were no longer visible.

_Calm down, Aqua,_ she scolded herself, slowing bringing her breath rate under control. _It's lunging at you from the shadows because it wants you to panic. If you panic, you get sloppy; if you get sloppy, you're dead._

The blue-haired young woman nodded to herself, but even though her breathing had slowed to the point where she seemed outwardly calm, the jackhammer beating of her heart was a clear indication that her fear was merely controlled, not dispelled.

_Calm, child, calm._ The voice was her own, but the words were those of Master Eraqus; perhaps she was merely imagining them, or perhaps her mentor's words had been plucked from the memory of one part of her training that now seemed appropriate. _The power of darkness is dangerous, as are those who wield it, but by itself it holds nothing for you to fear. There are times when the servants of the dark will seek to use it on you, turn your senses against you; in such time, you must utilize the full extent of your abilities in order to prevail. If a foe blinds you or moves unseen through the world, open your mind and let your ears guide you. And remember, Aqua; no matter how your enemy might seek to cripple you by robbing you of your sight, he can only hurt you if he can hit you. That is why you must not strike blindly at the shadows in an attempt to come at the enemy; you must let the enemy come to you, and then instruct him why it was a grave mistake to assault a chosen wielder of the Keyblade…_

_Let him come to me,_ Aqua repeated. "Let him come to me…"

Then an idea came to her, and she smiled wearily. _Very well, Master; I'll let him come to me…_

The young Keyblade Master held her late mentor's weapon aloft and unleashed the power she had been gathering for the last few moments in a potent spell. Eight glowing disks, gently rotating a few inches above the ground in a circular formation spaced evenly around the mage, sprang into existence. Then, taking a deep breath to calm her fluttered nerves, Aqua closed her eyes and _listened_.

For a few moments, there was nothing. Then, as her hearing began to adjust in order to compensate for the lack of visual information from her eyes, the warrior mage heard a faint noise, a padding of massive feet circling her at a rapid speed. She remained stationary, giving no indication that she knew where the monster was, and waited.

The padded footfalls became louder as the beast broke into a run, coming from directly behind.

Aqua waited until she could feel the awful heat of the dark hunter's rancid breath, then spun around and dove towards her assailant. The beast, unprepared for this, arced just overhead as she hit the ground and tucked into a smooth roll.

Unable to kill its forward momentum, the beast landed right in the middle of the circle of disks, each of its paws landing directly on one of the disks. The result of this contact was as immediate as it was spectacular; the mine disks, triggered by the weight and pressure of the creature standing upon them, went off simultaneously in a chain reaction that engulfed the beast in a giant fireball. It howled in rage at being deceived so, the pained bass of its cries almost managing to drown out the deafening roar of the explosion.

The backwash sent Aqua into a tumble, but thanks to her agility the young Keyblade Master quickly brought herself under control and managed to regain her footing. She looked towards the flames as she rose to her feet, smiling in satisfaction as she saw her opponent's silhouette thrashing in agony within the blaze.

_There; even if that doesn't kill the brute, he should be severely weakened. Either way, the fight isn't stacked in its favour anymore; it sought easy prey, but it didn't expect me to have teeth of my own._

Satisfaction turned to wary readiness, however, when the dark hunter spun around to fix its baleful gaze upon her. Its eyes bobbed gently up and down, back and forth, as the flames lapping at its flanks slowly guttered and went out; and then, with a sudden howl of absolute rage the darkness which had lain over the clearing lifted, allowing Aqua to see her assailant clearly for the first time.

Her initial impressions of the creature had been correct; it was utterly enormous, being nearly twice her size at the shoulders and as long as Gantu had been tall, if not longer. It hunkered down on four long, feline legs, coiled beneath its powerfully built and velvet-hued body in taut readiness for a springing leap, and thick chains, wrapped around its forelimbs in countless loops and terminating in the splayed black prongs of two enormous grappling hooks, would clink and rustle softly whenever the beast shifted its weight. The monster's incredibly long, barbed tail twitched in anticipation, as did the bizarre and unsettling mane of tendrils which wreathed its head, and it pawed at the ground with talons that were curled and serrated like blades, blades which would have no trouble opening Aqua from her gullet to her gizzard if they managed to make contact with the Keyblade Master.

The crimson glow of the leonine beast's eyes had faded, and the young mage noted that they were actually yellow, just like those of all the other monsters she had encountered thus far. They stared hungrily at her, unblinking, and Aqua shuddered at the infinite malice and insatiable lust for flesh she saw in those horrid amber pools. Like the dark sphere, this monster had a mouth—a jagged thing, full of sharp triangular teeth, and the cant of its lips made the hunter's maw into a perpetual grin. A fat red tongue, dripping with caustic saliva, flapped and lolled silently within its jaws, and even from this distance she could feel the heat of its rank breath.

The enormous predator was wounded, to be sure; its feet were still blackened with scorch marks from their contact with the mines, and the bruises and cuts which peppered its muzzle had clearly come from the shaft of Master Keeper. That said, it was clear from the way it crouched and shifted its weight back and forth that the beast was by no means finished; like the shades, this monster would fight on and never give in until one or the other was slain.

Aqua's appraisal of her monstrous opponent came to an end as the beast surged into motion. It loped towards her, eating up the distance between them with every step, and hissing red flames leapt into existence in the wake of its feline footfalls.

The Keyblade Master's eyes widened at the monster's speed; it was moving much faster, now that it was angry. She cartwheeled to one side, narrowly managing to avoid being crushed beneath one of those enormous paws. The young mage felt blisters spring up on her back in response to the sweltering heat of its flames, a mild discomfort rapidly eclipsed by a sudden pain which blossomed across her spine as she straightened up; the dark hunter had come to a screeching halt and spun around, causing the chains which bound its legs to fly wild. As a result, one of the grappling hooks had skimmed across her exposed back and torn a nasty cut there.

_That's it,_ Aqua thought as she turned around to face the beast, calling a glittering dome of hexagonal panels into existence to protect her against a follow-up swipe from the razor talons of the beast's forepaws. _At the earliest possible convenience, I _need_ to put some armour there._

Her Barrier spell burst as the dark hunter recoiled, hexagonal panels exploding outwards to batter the monster's face. One fortuitously-aimed panel struck it in the eye, and as it howled in pain and rage and thrashed blindly, Aqua decided not to let this rare opportunity go to waste.

She turned and ran to the edge of the clearing, putting some distance between herself and the monster while it was still distracted. She knew that her panels, being magical constructs, would not last much longer; in a few seconds they would fade from existence, and a few seconds after that the beast would have recovered sufficiently to continue the battle.

But a few seconds was all she needed.

Taking a moment to ascertain that she was facing the dark hunter correctly, Aqua closed her eyes and _focused_. Slowly, silently, power began to fill her Keyblade as she visualized the leonine beast with her mind's eye, trying to make the mental image as detailed as possible. She pictured its talons, its fangs, the awful yellow gleam of its eyes, the blood-slicked grappling hooks at the end of its chains, the ridge of spikes running along its spine, those weird twitching ear-things…as the image took shape and became more and more concrete, so too did the intense power gathering within Master Keeper gradually build to a crescendo, and the power became a raging torrent of energy begging to be unleashed.

Yet this was not magic, or at least, not entirely; while a weapon of potent mystical power, Keyblades were not fuelled exclusively by magic. Their strength was dependant, in large part, on the strength of their bearer's heart and the force of their emotions; a strong will and intense feelings of courage, hope, love, determination, and a whole host of other sensations all lent considerable power to a Keyblade, and properly focused such thoughts and feelings could allow a Keybearer to loose the full extent of their power upon an enemy. This technique was difficult to master, incredibly draining and required a few moments to set up, but the payoff of a successful execution was well worth the risk. It had been known by many names over the years, according to Master Eraqus, and each iteration of the Keyblade Knighthood had devised their own terms for the technique; some called them Desperation Attacks, to fit their nature as a weapon of last resort, while others—Master Xehanort among them—had dubbed them Limit Breaks, in that they forced a Keyblade wielder to their very limits in an effort to dispatch the opposition. But Ven, bless his little heart, had come up with his own name for the technique during his training alongside Terra and Aqua, and the term had been so incongruous, so endearing, so uniquely Ventus that even the normally stern Master Eraqus had cracked a smile, and the name had stuck.

He had dubbed them Shotlocks.

Aqua's eyes snapped open, and she fixed the dark hunter with a determined gaze. A warm, teal light surrounded her and lifted her six feet off the ground, where she hovered without concern for the breeze buffeting her as it blew through the clearing, and raised Master Keeper to level the venerable weapon at the beast.

That leonine head swung up to fix its horrid yellow gaze upon the cerulean-haired mage just in time to wince as a sudden, blindingly-multihued aura engulfed her Keyblade.

"_Prism Rain!"_ she cried.

The words had not even finished leaving her mouth when an intense burst of iridescent light erupted from the tip of her Keyblade, separating into a dozen streamers of light, each possessed of a different hue, before coming together in a circular formation. The scintillating points of radiance then arced and spiralled across the clearing at a blinding speed, a rainbow-hued meteor shower that bombarded the dark hunter from multiple angles and wrung howls of agony from its grinning jaws with every strike. Every impact inflicted more pain upon the creature than any spell which had come before it, for this rainbow shower was not simply magical energy laced with elemental power and woven into packets of destructive force; this was the light of Aqua's heart, captured, distilled and intensified into a barrage of divine radiance and positive emotion, and to creatures of the dark, such weapons were the ultimate threat to their existence, for wherever light shone, the darkness could not stand.

"You're going down," Aqua said, a faint wheeze in her voice as she launched a second volley at the reeling behemoth. Plumes of black miasma billowed from its velvet flanks wherever her prismatic missiles struck.

A third barrage followed soon after, but while her blasts seemed to be wearing the dark hunter down, Aqua took no satisfaction in the act; she needed to remain focused in order to keep up her continuous fire, and that was hard enough already due to the fact that she was finding it hard to draw breath at the moment. "Do you hear me? You're going down and you're going to _stay_—"

A deafening **BOOM!** Drowned out the rest of Aqua's words, nearly breaking her concentration; the strength of her barrage waned as a result, with only seven prismatic light rays streaking out to smite the dark hunter instead of the previous dozen. The young Keyblade Master tried to regain her focus, but this quickly proved to be a futile effort as the source of that abrupt noise became clear. Aqua had scarcely enough time to widen her eyes in shock before a crackling orb of raw, unmitigated darkness erupted from the leonine beast's jaws and slammed into her with the speed and force of a cannonball.

The cerulean-haired mage threw her head back in a silent scream of pain as the sphere engulfed her, and a web of pure agony flooded across her body in the form of crackling arcs of coruscating black lightning. She tried desperately to maintain some degree of focus, but it was impossible; her every nerve screamed at her in pain, the darkness being just as much an anathema to beings of light as was the reverse.

Bereft of her will's support, the Keyblade Master dropped unceremoniously to the ground, a pained wheeze and a spurt of blood escaping her mouth as she landed hard on her injured back.

Aqua sat up, wincing as she brought a hand to her head, and tried to calm herself with a deep breath—only to descend into a coughing fit. She pulled her palm away from her mouth a moment later, once the attack had subsided, and her eyes widened in shock as she saw the flecks of blood staining the palm of her fingerless glove.

"What's…_wrong with me_?" she wheezed, her breath coming in short, ragged gasps.

She had no time to ponder this unsettling turn of events any further, unfortunately, for at that moment the dark hunter leapt into the air and spun perpendicular to the ground. Its talons wreathed themselves in a sinister red energy, an aura which stretched into the circumference of a deadly circle as it wheeled towards her through the air in defiance of the laws of physics, looking for all the worlds like the blade of some enormous buzz saw.

There was no time to get to her feet, and so Aqua rolled to one side, narrowly evading the scything claws of her assailant. Every contact her back made with the ground brought another wet cough to her mouth, and every time this happened the young Keyblade Master found that her shortness of breath was getting worse and worse.

_How did this happen?_ She thought in a panic as she sprang to an upright position. _The only time it actually hit me beyond that shadow ball attack was when—_

Her eyes widened in horrified realization, and she brought a hand up to feel the gash on her back. A narrow, warm gust of air jetted out to greet her palm, tickling it with the unexpected heat, and Aqua felt as though she were about to wretch.

The grappling hook which had slashed her back must have put a tiny hole in one of her lungs—not big enough to be immediately fatal, but large enough that she would soon die if the young woman did not receive immediate medical attention.

She had the capability to perform a Cure spell potent enough to repair the damage, but it would take time—and judging from the way her leonine assailant was thrashing about, it was time she simply did not have.

Aqua set her mouth in a thin, determined line and brought Master Keeper up to an offensive guard. _I'll just have to finish this now, then…_

The beast whirled round to face Aqua, and the warrior mage could tell right away that it was on its last legs. Thick gouts of black vapour billowed from the dozens of craters which pockmarked its velvet body, grim testament to the incredible damage her Prism Rain Shotlock had wrought upon this emissary of the dark. Its flanks shuddered with every breath, and its tongue dangled limply from one side of that grinning maw, leaking noxious miasma as though it had been bitten while its owner was thrashing in pain and rage. It wouldn't take much more effort for her to finish the beast off.

Yet it was equally clear, to the Keybearer's grim displeasure, that her assailant was not going to roll over and die without putting up a fight. Strange clouds of a thick, iridescent smoke enveloped its purple flanks, filling the air with a strange musk that made Aqua feel distinctly light-headed…or maybe that was the lack of oxygen talking. Either way, the beast looked odd as it swayed in place; its movements seemed clipped and choppy, like a poorly-done moving picture, and multi-coloured afterimages copied the fell behemoth's motions a half-second into its wake.

It was bizarre, to say the least. As the creature was not attacking at the moment, Aqua held her Keyblade aloft and let out a dry, wheezing rasp of "Esuna." A soothing light enveloped her for a moment, but alas the curative spell did absolutely nothing to dispel the surreal state of otherness which had befallen her.

_Oh, well,_ she thought idly, barely even noticing as she cartwheeled to one side in an effort to evade the giant screaming fireball which had just exploded out of the dark hunter's mouth. _It was worth a shot…_

Aqua let out a giggle at this little pun, but it quickly turned into another wet cough. _Okay, note to self; don't talk, laugh, cry out or vocalize in any other conceivable way any more than you have to for the next few minutes._

What happened next gave the young Keyblade Master cause to ponder whether the strange musk emanating from her opponent was causing a trip. The beast stopped moving, swaying gently in place as though waiting for her to attack, and then suddenly one of its afterimages was right in front of her, taking a swipe at her with its enormous claws.

"Hey!" she cried out, taking a step backward before her mind managed to exert a modicum of control. _Calm down, Aqua; remember how it tried to psyche you out by hiding in the shadows? It's doing the same thing right now, trying to make you waste your energy by fighting…_

One of the green afterimage's talons skimmed lightly across Aqua's abdomen, leaving a thin but noticeable cut in the fabric of her clothing as she came to a halt. The Keybearer stared down in shock as she heard the sound of cloth and leather being torn, and a cursory tactile examination revealed that yes, the cut was indeed real; thank heavens she's moved, or the beast would have disembowelled her right then and there.

…_an illusion,_ her mind finished, a note of irritation evident in its tone.

_Less talk, more action!_ Aqua thought, backpedalling furiously as more and more of the seemingly-illusory panthers came at her with deadly claw swipes. Even moving at full tilt and with adrenaline flooding her mind to clear it of its earlier lethargy, it was all she could do to stay out of reach and evade their raking talons.

Mercifully, each afterimage only made a single attack before fading from existence, and after the tenth mirage had narrowly missed taking her head off they stopped coming altogether. A good thing, too; with her breath now coming in tiny rasps and her body swaying as it fought to maintain equilibrium, Aqua doubted that she could have kept her evasive acrobatics up for any longer.

Naturally, it was at this point that the real dark hunter decided to make its presence known. The blue-haired girl barely had time to straighten up and resume her guarded position before the great beast lunged at her from within the fading final illusion, and Aqua cried out in alarm and pain as she fell backwards, narrowly evading a downward slash that would have easily split her in twain.

Unfortunately, there was no time to get out of the way, and the claw slammed down on the prone Keyblade Master to pin her against the cold earth, driving the breath from her lungs in a pained and completely involuntary gust of air and blood. She gasped desperately for breath, clawing at the enormous paw with her bare hands as panic began to creep over her, and the beast's hot and humid breath washed over her face in a rank jet as its head loomed above her, its jaws opening wide to administer the killing blow.

A weary resignation came over the warrior mage then, and she closed her eyes in defeat. _So this is it,_ she thought bitterly. _This is how I meet my end. I have to say, getting eaten by some sort of demon lion wasn't quite what I had in mind when I first agreed to become Master Eraqus' apprentice…_

An image flashed through her mind then, or rather a series of images, lightning quick, so fast she wasn't even sure it had actually happened. The pictures had gone by too quickly for her to absorb all the details, but she recognized them from experience and knew their significance: Ven sitting in a throne, slumped over and comatose in the protective chamber she had wrought for her slumbering little brother; Terra, his hair turned molten silver and his eyes glowing a hateful amber, corrupted by the malign influence of the darkness and Xehanort's evil; and Master Eraqus, frowning at her with stern disapproval.

Aqua's eyes snapped open, and her face settled into a hard mask. She could not afford to die here and now; there were still too many people counting on her, too many promises left to fulfill, before she could make that ultimate journey.

"I won't lose," she gasped, lifting up Master Keeper with a truly immense effort. "Not here, not now…"

The dark hunter loosed a low growl, and its jaws surged forward to take her head off.

The beast came up short when it suddenly found the long, cold length of Aqua's Keyblade lodged in its throat. It gagged on the metal, trying to cough the blade up, but the young Master was having none of it; she leaned upright as far as the paw pinning her to the ground would allow, forcing the blade's length further and further down its throat. Power began to coruscate along its length.

"Did you hear me?" she said, her voice soft yet strong; the cold note of steel rang in her words, and even as the beast spat and hissed in anger they were clearly audible. "My name is Master Aqua. I am successor to Master Eraqus and custodian of the Land of Departure. I am the chosen wielder of the Keyblade, and I will _not lose_—"

A swift kick of an armoured foot struck a nerve, and the beast's paw came off Aqua as she stood up—

"—_to the likes—_"

She grasped the hilt of Master Keeper in both hands, thrusting it all the way in to the guard and bracing herself—

"—_of a flea-bitten stray like you!_"

Gritting her teeth with effort, the young Keyblade Master poured all of her strength into her vice-like grip on the Keyblade and wrenched the blade ninety degrees to the right in one smooth motion.

A sound like the chime of a celestial bell split the air, and the beast ceased struggling as intense rays of light began to shine out from within its body. Beams of radiance erupted all along the dark hunter's flanks, the very force of their luminance vaporizing the dark matter which made up its velvet flesh, and it vomited steam and blinding flares into the girl's face in a final effort to dissuade her; but Aqua was made of sterner stuff than that, and held on, taking all the punishment her dying assailant could dish out without so much as a single flinch.

Then, so suddenly that you would have missed the event entirely if you blinked, the creature exploded. Its remains quickly dissolved into a dank miasma, and at its core a glowing blue crystal in the shape of a heart revolved gently in mid-air, filling the clearing with its warm and gentle light. Aqua tracked the crystal as it slowly flew up to the heavens, where it disappeared in a shower of gold sparkles. She didn't fully understand the significance of this strange sight, but it brought a smile to her face nonetheless.

The Keyblade Master then took a moment to get her bearings, now that that was taken care of, and quickly turned in the direction of the shadow geyser.

"Right, I've come this far."

After administering a quick healing spell to close that injury on her back before things could get any worse, Aqua took one step in the direction of her ultimate goal…and promptly collapsed, unconscious. The strain of her furious battle had been too much for the girl.

* * *

The blue-haired young woman awoke some time later, confused and disoriented but otherwise feeling refreshed from her impromptu nap. After taking a few moments to make sure that her Cure spell had worked properly and everything was in working order—no gash on her back, thankfully, and no jet of warm air gusting out in time with her breath, either—Aqua got to her feet, summoned Master Keeper to her hand and set off once more. This time, she vowed, she would reach the geyser's source and get to the bottom of this.

She followed the path as it wound through the facsimile forest, following every twist and bend in the trail. To either side of the road, she noticed, the twisted parodies vegetation began to seem more and more like real bushes and actual trees as time went on and as she ventured further into the lightless depths of these woods, and they became so thick and clustered so densely that it was impossible for her to see very far in either direction. Every now and then a faint breeze would whisper through the boughs, setting their leaves aflutter and putting Aqua on edge. It wasn't the noise that unnerved her, or this gradual transformation from the building blocks of a forest to a genuine one; no, this was something else entirely, something grim and insidious. With every step she took, the young Keyblade Master felt an increasingly strong sense of _wrongness_ about this place, wrongness…and worse, familiarity.

She had no idea why this place seemed to resonate with her so, and to be perfectly honest she did not want to know the reason behind it; all she knew, with a deep and absolute certainty whose source she could not identify, was that these woods did not belong in the Realm of Darkness. They belonged under a sunlit sky, not beneath the grim black storm clouds which now gathered overhead.

The low rumble of approaching thunder filled the air, and Aqua grimaced; while the boughs of the trees still formed a thick canopy over the path itself, there were enough gaps in their coverage that she would still get soaked to the bone if a downpour started. Then she would have a problem; there were many things which an Esuna spell could cure or alleviate, but pneumonia was not among them.

_Though if nothing else,_ she thought with a wry smile, hanging her head, _I'll finally be able to quench my thirst…_

Her thoughts trailed off then, as she noticed that the forest came to an abrupt halt and left her standing on a flat plane of rock beneath an unbroken field of clouds.

Perturbed by this sudden change in scenery, Aqua lifted her gaze upward to look ahead…and came to a complete stop, recoiling from the sight before her as if slapped.

"It can't be…" she whispered, staring in horror at the source of the shadow geyser.

Not twenty feet from where she stood, the ground sloped rapidly downward into a deep valley, its contents hidden from prying eyes by an impossibly thick bank of violet fog, for the most part. Here and there she caught the briefest glimpse of verdant trees poking through the mist, only for the thick vapour to roll in and swallow these fragmentary glimpses up into their impenetrable depths. She had no idea how broad this vale was, or how far it stretched in any direction; but somehow, she knew, deep in her heart, that what she saw before her—the sole object to break free of the obscuring fog bank and rear up majestically in defiance of the heavens—lay at its heart.

Though it had been some time since she had last lain eyes on those gleaming white towers and their elegant blue spires, there was no mistaking the horrifically familiar keep which jutted incongruously from the shadowed vale like something out of a nightmare.

This was impossible; they had saved the worlds from Master Xehanort's insane ambitions, stopped him from opening the door to Kingdom Hearts and covering all the worlds in darkness. The Unversed were gone, no threats to the Realm of Light remained. How, then, could this be happening? How could something as pure and innocent as the beautiful castle before her come to be in this place? Had the whole universe gone insane?

A deep rumble of imminent thunder split the air again, and before her eyes the cloud cover broke to reveal twin glimpses of the leering purple sky beyond. Aqua shuddered as the clouds arranged themselves into an ominous shape; from this distance, the two breaks in the storm bank seemed like the baleful violet eyes of an evil god, leering down at the Castle of Dreams with an utterly malevolent intent.

_Perhaps it _had_ gone mad, _the blue-haired Keyblade Master thought grimly, staring down at the valley below and the castle at its heart. _Or maybe I have; either case is preferable to the alternative, that this is actually happening and not the fevered imaginings of my fatigued mind. What happened here, and where are Cinderella, Prince Charming, Jaq and the others?_

Her journey to the mysterious fountain of darkness and its source might have ended, but the long night was not yet over. No, she realized, she was not out of the Realm of Darkness just yet; her nightmare was only just beginning.

* * *

...Aaaand I do believe that's a wrap, folks!

So ends the first arc of _Kingdom Hearts Obscuritas_; be sure to tune in next week as the adventure continues, and until then feel free to leave any comments or criticism you may have. I sincerely hope you enjoyed reading the tale thus far, and I hope that you will continue to do so in the weeks to come.

Oh, and before anyone asks, I know that I deviated from the game mechanics at certain points; I'm not going to let adherence to how the game works interfere with a good story. If that happens to be one of your criticisms, you don't need to bring it up. :p


	4. Chapter Three: Chateau des Cauchemars

Hello again, my good readers. I appologize for the lateness of this installment; I got hit with a nasty case of writer's block last week, and when it lifted I had to turn my attention to other matters. Regardless, I'm back, and I come offering the latest installment of _Kingdom Hearts Obscuritas_ for your viewing pleasure; this one is between the previous two chapters in length. As always, comments and criticism are welcome.

And now, without further ado, let us begin.

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* * *

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Kingdom Hearts Obscuritas

**Chapter Three: Chateau des Cauchemars**

* * *

Having no other choice and a desire to find out just what had happened to cause this nightmare, Aqua steeled herself to enter the valley and make for the Castle of Dreams. She approached the lip of the depression, concern and apprehension writ clear on her face as she gazed out into the thick, purple fog which blanketed all within its depths. On a hunch, the Keyblade Master plucked her wayfinder from its place on her belt and held it aloft, hoping that it might offer her a clue on how to proceed or an inkling of Cinderella's location.

It was no use; no light emanated from the star-shaped charm, and she was unable to connect with Cinderella's heart.

Aqua's blue eyes shifted to regard the castle at the vale's heart, and her brow creased in worry as her gaze roamed across its marble towers and cerulean spires, perversely unchanged by the madness around them.

"What happened here?" she whispered. "Where are you, princess?"

The warrior mage lifted Master Keeper aloft, weaving the magic she had gathered within its shaft into a simple enchantment that left her levitating a few inches off the ground; no sense letting herself get bruised and battered on the way down, after all, especially if trouble awaited her in those woods as she feared. Once she was certain that her Float spell had taken effect, Aqua took one step into the air and found herself plummeting towards the valley floor. Thankfully, the same magic that kept her soles from touching the ground also left her in control of her descent, and Aqua allowed herself a moment of calm as she skimmed down the sloping walls of the vale with all the skill and grace of a champion figure skater.

The young woman turned her body sharply to one side as she came to a halt, killing her forward momentum as the brief enchantment wore off so that she would not be sent into a tumble once her feet hit the ground. Despite these precautionary measures, she very nearly fell over, and Aqua was forced to throw out her arms in order to maintain her balance as she stumbled.

Once she was certain that her footing was secure, Aqua took a moment to get her bearings. She was immediately struck by the unnatural silence which seemed to lie over this forest; true, the only sounds she heard during the previous leg of her journey had been the rustling of wind and the crunch of gravel beneath her armoured feet, but here it seemed…_different_ on some fundamental level. Here the wind did not blow, and the trees were completely and utterly still, their leaves silent and immobile without the air's gentle caress to set them all aflutter. She spotted a number of nests nestled within the boughs of a few nearby oaks, but as she drew near the Keyblade Master could see that they were empty, and had been for some time.

Somehow, she found, the total absence of sound combined with this evidence that life should have been present in this forest yet, curiously, was not, painted a bleak picture which made this entire situation all the more ominous.

Fortunately, she did not have long to dwell on such grim thoughts; as she looked up, the fog broke momentarily, and she caught a glimpse of the distant castle further along. With this knowledge in hand, Aqua set out in the direction of the keep, following a small trail that wound its way through the forest when she could and forging a path of her own when she could not; all the while, the young Keyblade Master would cast an occasional skyward glance whenever the mist dispersed, making sure that she was still on course.

Roughly forty minutes into her trailblazing, by her reckoning at any rate, the blue-haired mage came upon a small clearing that offered a clear view of her destination; judging from the way its towers loomed on the horizon, she was not far from the Castle of Dreams. Aqua nodded, and was about to press on when she noticed a faint glitter of reflected light out of the corner of her eye. Confused and intrigued by this unexpected source of illumination, she turned to her left and let out a startled gasp; there, not thirty feet away, was a small pool of water just big enough—were she so inclined—to accommodate her and have room to spare.

Scarcely able to believe her eyes, Aqua walked over to the pond and knelt at its edge, reaching out with a hesitant hand to confirm its existence. A faint chill met her fingers as they brushed across the pool's surface, distorting the glittering reflection of the Castle of Dreams with sudden ripples, and a reassuring dampness seeped into the palms of her fingerless gloves at this contact.

The blue-haired young woman's face split into a relieved smile, and she let out a sigh. "Thank goodness for small favours," she whispered to no one in particular; after all this time without so much as a single drop of water to slake her thirst, this pool was quite a sight for her sore eyes. Still, no sense taking unnecessary risks in order to quench her thirst; standing water found in the wild was seldom safe for human consumption, as she knew too well, and in the Realm of Darkness, who _knew_ what sort of weird and unhealthy things might have been floating around in the pool's inviting depths?

The young mage closed her eyes and held her Keyblade out over the pool, angled so that its teeth hovered scant centimetres above the glittering surface of the pond. "Cleanse," she said, and a sparkling torrent of liquid light poured forth from Master Keeper's tip, seeping into the water and causing it to glow with a gentle, internal radiance.

Once this was done, Aqua set her blade down next to the pool and cupped some water in her hands, smiling at her reflection as she brought it up to her face. Her happy expression faded into a frown as she took note of her unkempt appearance; dirt and dried blood had built up on her face, mute testament to the ferocious struggles the young woman had endured to make it this far, and her hair was a dishevelled mess.

_I'll definitely need to take a bath soon_, she mused with a disappointed hum. _Not for vanity's sake, of course; fighting monsters while my body is caked in filth like this is just asking for an infection, and Esuna can only do so much when it comes to curing my ills. Later, though; you've got more important things to worry about at the moment._

"Good advice," Aqua said out loud, seemingly in acknowledgement of her own train of thought. She then brought her head forward and drank up the water with a deep, greedy slurp. It was cool in her mouth, and even though water was without flavour she felt it tasted greater than anything in the world at the moment. She drank several more handfuls until her thirst seemed satisfied, taking care not to imbibe too much for fear of overtaxing her dehydrated system, and then splashed some on her face to remove a bit of the grime.

The Keyblade Master rose to her feet with a groan and stretched. "Much better," she sighed, and she meant it; with her thirst finally quenched, she was starting to feel better already. Now all she needed was some food in her belly, and everything would be just peachy. That could wait for the moment, of course, as could her bath; now that she had seen to one of her most pressing needs, the young mage turned her attention back to the castle.

Aqua summoned Master Keeper to her hand and made to set off, but paused and plucked the wayfinder from its resting place once more. Staring into its cerulean depths, the blue-haired young woman's brows knitted together in intense concentration as she used the charm's magic to reach out.

_Where are you, Cinderella?_ She thought, attempting to trace the bonds between their hearts and find the Princess' location. _Answer me if you can; I'm coming to find you._

Then a voice—gentle, loving and soft—came unbidden to her mind, surprising Aqua, and a familiar sensation of warmth stole over the Keyblade Master as a single spark of light flared at the star-shaped pendant's heart.

_A…qua…_

Her eyes widening, Aqua leaned forward and spoke aloud, her tone urgent. "Cinderella! Where are you?"

_Palace…danger…hurry…_

Lowering the charm to her side, Aqua looked up at the gleaming towers of the Castle of Dreams, her gaze hardening in determination. "I understand," she said, breaking into a brisk trot towards the keep. "Hold on, Cinderella; I'm not about to lose another friend to the darkness."

* * *

Ten minutes later, Aqua had finally arrived at the palace itself. Only now, when she had reached her destination, did it become apparent that the castle was not as pristine and flawless as she remembered. The gates lay in shambles, their glittering iron bars warped and twisted as if they had been crushed in the grasp of some belligerent giant—and considering her first encounter with the denizens of this dark realm, the Keyblade Master had to admit that this possibility was not as incredulous as she might like to believe.

The courtyard, elegant and immaculate even when she had been locked in combat with the Unversed however long ago that was, was riddled with pockmarks and craters, and the shrubs and statuary were askew or lay broken on the cobblestone paths, having been uprooted or knocked aside with tremendous force. The fountain, which had long been the courtyard's centerpiece, was a shattered ruin, and fetid water seeped from the deep gouges which marred its alabaster façade like blood from a fresh carcass. Minute cracks and fissures spider-webbed across the walls, an ominous purple light radiating from within their depths, and here and there strange hemispheres of spongy dark matter sprouted like barnacles from the masonry. These violet globes throbbed gently, seeming to breathe in tune with Aqua's inhalations, and every now and then they released small clouds of noxious spores that left the mage in a coughing fit if she was unfortunate enough to inhale them; she wisely chose to keep her distance from these odd growths for the time being.

Lights shone from within several of the keep's windows, a warm, gentle radiance that seemed to keep the darkness at bay; perhaps there was life yet within the Castle of Dreams.

_Considering all the monsters I've had to face, though, that might not be a good thing for whoever's still inside there_, the blue-haired young woman mused as she stepped into the courtyard. _If these creatures are as hostile towards others as they've been towards me, then anyone inside is in danger; I've got to get them out of here…but how?_

Her thoughts thus occupied, Aqua was unprepared for what happened next. Something cold and clammy wrapped around her ankle in a grip of iron, and before she could blink the Keyblade Master was yanked downward by a sudden and incredible force, forcing her to one knee.

"What?" she exclaimed in alarm, looking down to see what had happened. Her eyes widened as they caught sight of an ink-skinned, four-fingered hand which had seized her right above the protective ankle blades of her armoured shoes; the wiry, muscular arm to which this hand belonged trailed off into a roiling pool of yawning, absolute darkness, and it was into this vortex that her assailant was attempting to pull her, perhaps intending to smother the light of her heart in its nocturnal depths.

_Well, that's not going to happen if I have anything to say about it!_

Aqua brought Master Keeper down on the shade's wrist with all the force she could muster, gouging a large chunk of dark matter from its arm. The creature's hand began to spasm in pain, and by reflex its fingers sprang open to release her from their grasp.

The blue-haired young woman gave her opponent no time to recover. "Fire!" she cried, and a crackling ball of flame erupted from her Keyblade to streak into the black pool, setting that dextrous and powerful hand ablaze.

Aqua pulled away from the flames and stood upright, casting her gaze about the courtyard in search of any other potential ambushers. They were not long in appearing; four lean, muscular creatures pulled themselves out from their own shadows a few dozen feet away and squatted in a bizarre half-crouch as they turned to fix the Keyblade Master with the unblinking, hungry gaze of their eight amber eyes. They bore a resemblance to the goblins she had encountered many times before, having the same generally-humanoid shape, toeless feet, no mouths and a pair of antennae. That was where the similarities ended, however, for where the goblins had been short and childlike, these ones were limber and tall; she had no doubt that these creatures would easily be able to stand eye to eye with her, if they ever managed to stand erect. Their antennae trailed behind them and were incredibly long, reaching almost to the creatures' ankles, and thick blue veins throbbed at the base of these jagged zigzag appendages. Long, dextrous fingers which seemed to gradually become sharp talons at the end flexed in an idle display of remarkable strength, and their golden orbs gleamed with an unmistakable predatory intent.

If the hunchbacked shades were pack hunters, then these creatures were unquestionably the leaders of that pack, the collective alpha to the lesser shades' rank and file wolves. Aqua brought Master Keeper up to a middle guard and waited for them to come at her; they could have any number of tricks concealed up their nonexistent sleeves, and if she rushed in blindly it was quite likely that they would not only defeat her, but do so easily. Better to let them make the first move, and then make up a strategy as she went.

All four of the ink-skinned fiends sank into the ground and flattened into the shadows, and then began to flow towards her position. Aqua stood her ground as they encircled her at a distance, turning to keep as many of the wraiths in her field of vision as possible. She could not help but notice that the way they moved their arms and kicked their feet to propel themselves made it seem like her assailants were literally swimming through the earth, and for a moment the young woman found herself comparing them to savage aquatic predators Master Eraqus had once told his pupils about while explaining the nature of other worlds, creatures that were completely without mercy or remorse and which often travelled and killed in large groups called schools.

_My earlier analogy was incorrect,_ she realized. _These aren't wolves; they're sharks._

This sudden epiphany brought her no comfort whatsoever, for at that exact moment her assailants began their attack. As one, the four wraiths erupted from the Earth and rocketed unerringly towards the Keyblade Master, flying low across the ground despite a notable lack of wings. They had staggered their launches, coming at her from wildly different angles and in a series rather than all at once, so that she would not be able to counter their rushing attacks simultaneously.

_Quite a surprising tactical feat for mindless monsters,_ Aqua mused with a frown. _They really are apex predators; what other tricks might they be hiding in those dark skulls of theirs?_

Deciding that it would be best if she never found out, Aqua resolved to end this battle quickly. She thrust Master Keeper aloft, channelling her magical power through the blade as she wove together the threads of a spell. A pinch of force here, a touch of shadow there, some chaos to give her tapestry a little je ne sais quoi, and…done. The entire process had taken less than a second, leaving her plenty of time to react to her assailants. She had to wait for the opportune moment with this particular spell; cast it too early, and some of the wraiths would be outside its radius; too late, and they would reach and maul her before the words—the most vital component of her more potent spells—could leave her lips.

The first wraith had nearly reached her, bearing down on Aqua like an onrushing train. She held her ground, not cowed by the unrelenting malevolence of its amber gaze, and observed the others; they were all within fifteen feet. Good.

"Drift!" she cried.

A circular shockwave of black energy expanded from where the Keyblade Master stood, rippling along the ground to cover everything in a radius of five meters before it fizzled out of existence. The effect was instantaneous: one second the wraiths had still been flying at her, the first of their number reaching out with a dextrous hand to grasp at Aqua's throat; and the next they were all floating, immobile, five feet off the ground. Had they not been paralyzed by the potent forces which kept them suspended in mid-air, Aqua knew that these creatures would have been struggling mightily in an effort to resume their attack. Fortunately for the young mage, they could not—now that they were caught in the invisible grasp of her Zero Graviga spell, the wraiths were effectively powerless and weightless; any motion on their part would merely have left them tumbling in place, completely and utterly disoriented. Once the spell wore off, their confusion would pass relatively quickly, and she knew it would not take long for her opponents to leap into the fray once more.

Fortunately for her, they would not get that chance; now that they were helpless, the blue-haired mage had something special in store for the buggers.

Aqua closed her eyes in concentration as she wove a new spell, not bothering to lower her Keyblade as she felt the threads and textures of the universe flow between the fingers of her mind into a form more suitable to her needs. Once the process was complete, she uttered a single word, a single syllable, so small that it could not possibly convey the potent magic she was about to unleash:

"Fire."

Aqua braced her feet just in time to absorb the sudden and nearly-overpowering recoil as a roiling sphere of blazing gases and awful light, a sun in miniature, flared into existence with a spectacular explosion. So bright was this would-be star that it seemed to rob what little light permeated the ruined courtyard, siphoning the luminance for itself so that it could not possibly be overlooked. The wraiths twitched and jerked in a truly bizarre, awful fashion, shuddering at the tremendous effort they poured into this action, and she realized that they were attempting to turn their heads, to avert their gaze from the sun's horrid radiance.

Then, with a sound like a giant beating the primordial drums of war, the sky rained fire. Tongues of flame and plumes of stellar ejecta burst forth from the false star, pelting the four beasts with burning death and setting them alight in a torrential downpour that lasted but half a second. When it had abated, the star imploded without ceremony and all that remained of the shadows was a thick cloud of noxious black vapour that had the decency to disperse in short order before it could assail Aqua's nose with its rank stench.

The way thus cleared, Aqua lowered Master Keeper and strode toward the castle's gate. She had to get to the bottom of this.

The enormous doors, once splendored and immaculate but now stained with verdigris, swung open at Aqua's touch without protest. The groan of hinges that had gone too long without knowing the touch of oil heralded her entrance to the cavernous entrance hall, and Aqua swept the hallway with her gaze as she strode inside. Like the courtyard, this room had seen better days; the red carpet which had once run proudly down its length now lay in tatters, torn apart by the frenzied clawing of enormous talons, and those columns which lined the hallway had been smashed and toppled to the floor, their pieces lying scattered in a haphazard fashion to form a tedious obstacle course. Torches and candles lay unlit in their sconces, and the resultant gloom painted everything in an unsettling, indigo hue quite at odds with the well-lit chambers of Aqua's memories.

The young woman sighed as she began to manoeuvre around the debris of one column; it had taken an age to cross this hallway when it had been empty, and now she had to deal with all this wreckage slowing her progress as well. If she got attacked here, now, then things would get ugly very quickly.

She had barely made it halfway through, balancing precariously atop a pillar fragment that had somehow landed with its cracked and irregular base on the floor, when two of the dark spheres pulled themselves into existence before her.

Aqua threw up her hands in disgust—and then scrambled madly to remain upright as this sudden movement nearly unbalanced her unstable perch. "Would you things just leave me alone for once?"

Evidently, they would not; the dark balls opened their maws wide in a pair of identical toothy grins and flew towards her at a rapid speed. The warrior mage sighed, waiting until these latest assailants were practically on top of her before she braced herself and threw up a barrier. A faint smile crossed her face as the creatures slammed into the invisible shield of hexagonal tiles which now surrounded her, their faces squashing comically against its surface; then the shield burst, and they were shredded into inert chunks of spongy dark matter as the panels tore through them like shrapnel.

Aqua straightened up and made to depart, only to flail about as her perch suddenly tipped forward to deposit her on the floor in a heap. Thankfully, she managed to catch herself with her hands and thus avoid introducing her face to the floor yet again, and she let out a tired sigh as she got to her feet and fixed the pillar with a baleful glare. It tottered back and forth, threatening to fall over for a moment, yet almost obscenely it settled back into place without complaint.

_Damn things,_ she thought, struck by the sudden and inexplicable urge to shake her fist at the pillar chunk. _If you're going to tip me over the second I stand up, you could at least have the decency to fall over with me!_

The pillar, being a pillar, had no comment, and Aqua sighed and moved on, grumbling about treasonous masonry under her breath.

She reached the end of the hall without incident, noting as she approached that the doors to the grand foyer seemed out of place for some reason. Perhaps it was those large knockers, which she could not recall having seen on her previous visit to the Castle of Dreams?

Then it hit her; unlike everything else she had seen of the castle thus far, they were just as clean and spotless as she remembered, and as she drew close she could feel a faint light emanating from beyond.

Intrigued, Aqua retrieved her wayfinder and held it up to the door, plumbing its cerulean depths with her gaze. Could this light have come from Cinderella? Had the Princess of Heart used her own light to protect her people?

It was possible, though given the sensations she felt as she reached out to Cinderella's heart, it was unlikely that the former scullery maid was out of danger; her light felt weak, so frail that Aqua might snuff it out simply by clinging to it too tightly, and it still carried a note of urgency.

_Aqua…hurry…_

"Don't worry, Cinderella," she whispered. "I'm on my way."

With these words, the Keyblade Master strode up to the door and grasped the handle. Given how easily the other doors had swung open, Aqua had expected that these doors to follow suite and yield to her grip. Alas, this was not the case; they held fast when she tried to pull them open, and would not budge when she pushed.

Frowning, the blue-haired mage placed a hand on the door itself and sent a questing tendril of magic into it, an invocation of Libra to even the odds. This minor charm enhanced her senses to incredible levels, and from this faint and fleeting touch Aqua was quickly able to discern the layout of its mechanisms, to position of their hinges and get a brief glimpse of what lay immediately on the other side.

Simply put, in addition to the light which suffused them, the doors had been locked and barricaded through more mundane means; obviously, whoever was still inside wasn't taking any chances.

_Even so, this is good news,_ she thought with a smile. _It means that there are people still alive in here._

Aqua stepped back and examined the majestic portal, folding her arms as she concentrated on the task at hand. She could simply force her way in, or use the Keyblade to unlock the door, but such methods would be counter-productive; if she opened the door with Master Keeper, the curtain of light would be dispelled, and anything it had kept at bay—those creatures, in all likelihood—would be free to enter the castle's living quarters and wreak havoc upon its denizens, and battering down the door itself would simply allow the larger monsters, ones that this barrier did not have the strength to keep out on its own, to force their way inside. In the end, there was only one viable option; she would just have to knock.

The mage stepped forward, seized one of the ornate rings which sat at the door's center, and slammed it down on the door itself. A loud **BOOM** echoed down the hallway, so great in volume that clumps of dust and rubble were dislodged from the roof and fell to the floor far below, and Aqua was forced to raise her free hand to shield herself from the clods; most of them were fairly small, but if a big-enough piece of masonry struck her on the temple, even the greatest healers in all the worlds would not be able to help her.

She waited a few moments, but no response came; so Aqua swung the knocker again, and again the hall resounded with the deafening bang of metal against wood. She had been just about to swing it a third time, casting a wary eye to the ceiling as she did so, when a noise from beyond the door reached her ears. It was muffled by the thick panelling of the oaken slabs, alas, and incredibly soft to begin with, so Aqua cast Libra once again and pressed her ear to the seam.

The pitter-patter of numerous booted feet reached her ears, along with the rattle and clack of metal slapping against metal and flesh. From the volume and frequency of the sounds, she guessed that at least four people, possibly more, were approaching her position…and, most importantly, they were carrying swords. Furthermore, while they were still too far away for her Libra-enhanced ears to hear everything they were saying, she was able to pick up faint scraps and snatches of conversation, half-heard words that fluttered into her ears with frantic urgency and nervous energy: amongst these words and phrases, "_reinforce_," "_to arms_" and "_repel the next wave_" seemed the most commonly uttered by far.

A frown spread across Aqua's face as she pulled away from the door. _Not quite the reception I was expecting…_

The sound of footsteps and the rattling of blades in scabbards grew louder, so much so that she could now hear it even through the thick door and without the benefits of her Libra charm. They rattled about for a few moments more, and the unmistakable rasp of swords being drawn from their sheaths ghosted through the air; then, silence.

The Keyblade Master stood there, hands coming to rest on her hips, and waited.

The silence from beyond the door persisted; evidently, the warriors who had come to meet her were unsure of how to proceed. Several minutes passed, stretching on into what seemed like an eternity to the blue-haired mage. The same was probably true for those on the other side of this mammoth door, Aqua mused, but for different reasons; _they probably find the silence tense, but to me this is just irksome and boring._

Finally, the faint noise of a blade being lowered split the quiet, and a harsh whisper came to her magically-enhanced ears.

_"The noise has stopped; do you think they've gone away?"_

_"I wouldn't bet on it,"_ hissed a second voice. _"These monsters are craftier than they look."_

A note of fear entered the first speaker's voice, and he continued on, seemingly not having heard the first. _"Hey, maybe it wasn't them at all; maybe that noise wasn't them trying to break down the door, maybe somebody managed to reach the castle after all this time and was knocking on the door, trying to get in…"_

_"You're imagining things; calm down, everything we've been through is making you paranoid."_

_"But what if it really was one of the villagers?"_ the first speaker insisted, his tone rising in mounting panic. _"What if they were knocking on the door because those monsters were hot on their heels and they needed us to let them in? What if they're lost, because we didn't open the door when they needed us to? What if that's the reason why they've stopped knocking!"_

Aqua had heard enough. "I'm not here to hurt you," she called, raising her voice to be heard through the doors.

Startled gasps and the whoosh of air being displaced by lifted swords could be heard. _"Somebody's outside,"_ the first speaker said, disbelief warring with relief in his voice. _"Should we let them in?"_

_"Hold on a moment,"_ cautioned the second. _"This could be a trick; she's the first person to reach this castle in lord knows how long, and yet she's a woman. How could she have survived to make it this far, yet the men have not?"_

The Keyblade Master bristled at this remark, but she was able to get a handle on her emotions and smother the anger welling up inside. She would have thought that a disaster of this magnitude, whatever it may have been, would have forced people to set aside their prejudices and work together in order to survive, but no; apparently discrimination against women was alive and well in the Castle of Dreams. What right did these men have to criticize her for her gender, when she had fought tooth and nail to reach this keep while they had been sitting pretty behind barricades and a protective curtain of light?

"I've travelled a long way to get here," she continued, keeping the irritation from her tone. "I mean you no harm, and in fact I've come here to help. I can't do that, however, if you leave me stranded out here. Will you please let me in?"

The second voice scoffed. _"Help, she says. What good can she possibly do in this situation?"_

_"You aren't just going to leave her out there, are you?"_

_"Maybe I am,"_ the second voice growled. _"Want to make something of it?"_

Aqua brought a hand to her face and sighed. _You _can't_ be serious…_

"I should warn you, I've endured a lot of hardships along the way," she added, summoning Master Keeper to her hand and flourishing the Keyblade. "And after all this time, my patience has worn thin. Open this door, or I will open it for you."

_"Oh, please,"_ sneered the second voice. _"What good could you possibly—"_

Then a third voice cut in, a high-pitched, nasal tone which Aqua found familiar. _"Open the gate, immediately."_

_"What? But sir, why? It's just a—"_

_"I recognize her voice, Francois,"_ the newcomer said archly, cutting off his opponent. _"And you would too, if you hadn't been down in the wine cellar drinking yourself into a stupor during the Grand Ball last year. Now do as she says and open the gate; if she says she can help us, I am more than willing to believe her."_

A minute later, the great doors began to swing open with a groan, and Aqua stepped forward to peer inside. The castle's main hall appeared much as she remembered it, save for the large pile of dressers, armoires, flagons, chairs and assorted other pieces of furniture which had been hastily moved aside to free up the doors and allow her entry. Palace guards stood nearby, their swords drawn and held at the ready as they peered into the darkness whence she had come with no small amount of wariness; it was clear from their haunted expressions that these men expected an attack to come at any moment, and that they did not expect to survive.

The Grand Duke stood before her, a warm smile on his lips that was at odds with his tired eyes. He seemed thinner than Aqua recalled, for his immaculately-pressed garb hung rather loosely around his gut, and a few streaks of grey in his hair spoke of both age and stress. The lens of his monocle had been cracked, and the eye beneath it was puffy; obviously, whatever had caused this injury had been a recent occurrence.

Despite his haggard and weather-beaten appearance, the smile he gave Aqua was genuine, and he ushered her inside.

"A pleasure to see you again, Miss…Aqua, was it not? Yes, I can see from your eyes that it is indeed your name. Come inside; you must be tired from your journey, and it isn't safe to keep the doors open for long."

Aqua stepped inside, and the guards set about closing the gate and resetting the barricade as soon as she was through. The Duke led her up the sweeping fights of the main staircase, taking her in the general direction of the ballroom and audience chamber.

"I had a feeling that you would be showing up soon, mademoiselle," he continued. "Princess Cinderella had been speaking of you quite frequently of late."

Aqua perked up at the mention of Cinderella's name. "Is she alright? What happened here."

The Duke sighed, and drew to a halt as he turned to face the Keyblade Master. "I'm not entirely certain, unfortunately, but if what the fairy godmother tells me is true, her present situation does not bode well."

He cast a glance in the direction of the palace guards, who had nearly completed their work; an odd expression flitted across his face, and for a moment Aqua was surprised to see a tinge of fear in his eyes. Was he afraid of his own men?

"Perhaps we had best discuss this in private," the Duke said at length. "Quite a bit has happened since you were last here, and it will take some time to tell; besides, we need to find you a place to stay."

Without another word, he turned and continued on his way. Aqua followed, frowning as she too looked at the soldiers now dispersing from the finished barricade.

_What am I getting into?_

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AN: What indeed. Tune in next week as Aqua learns what happened in her absence, and danger begins to rear its ugly head in a new and familiar form...

In the meantime, feel free to read and leave a review if you so desire.


	5. Chapter Four: Umbrae Sinister

**A/N:** I'm baaaaaack!

I know it's been a long time since you've had an update, guys...so I wrote you all an extra-long chapter to go with it! There isn't a lot of action going on in this one, but it does set up events that will occur in the next chapter, which should be up in...hmm, we'll say two weeks just to be safe.

And without further ado, here we go!

**Redundant legal disclaimer:** I do not own any of the characters appearing in this story (save for the ones I made up); I _do_, however, own a large number of souls-including _yours_!

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**Kingdom Hearts Obscuritas**

**Chapter Four: Umbrae Sinister**

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"Let me see, where to start…"

The Grand Duke had led Aqua to an opulent study on one of the palace's upper floors. This room, it seemed, had been spared the ravages of whatever darkness had befallen the Castle of Dreams; its walls were lined with enormous bookshelves, all of which were packed to the brim with volumes, tomes and manuscripts on every subject imaginable, and great portraits and paintings hung wherever there was room, depicting members of the royal family in all their grace and nobility over a period of seven generations. A gentle fire roared in the fireplace, casting odd shadows about the walls and filling the room with warmth and dancing light; the Keyblade Master had pulled her chair up close to the blaze and held out her hands, sighing in relief as the fire's heat banished the chill of everlasting night from them and filled her body with a tangible warmth that set her mind at ease.

Her eyes had wandered to the largest portrait, an elliptical thing hung over the ornate mantelpiece that depicted a short, pudgy man in a resplendent uniform; his balding head and thick, bushy white mutton chops had arrested Aqua's attention, and the overly serious expression on his face had brought an amused smile to her lips; he looked like a boy playing at dress-up, rather than a wise and noble king.

The Grand Duke followed her gaze and nodded in understanding. "His Majesty, the king," he explained, gesturing to the painting with all the flair of a teacher pontificating on his favourite subject. "I must say, this particular portrait does a magnificent job of capturing His Eminence's character; the likeness is so accurate, so lifelike."

Aqua raised an eyebrow. "He looks like he's about to have a fit, to be perfectly honest," she said, her tone respectful in spite of the slight.

To her surprise, the Duke chuckled softly. "An astute observation, mademoiselle, and as a matter of fact that is quite true; he did have a fit as soon as the portrait was complete. If I recall correctly, he said that it failed to portray him as he ought to be; beneficent and caring."

"I see," Aqua replied. _A little temperamental, then…_ "So he's the father of the prince, I take it?"

"Oh, yes," the duke nodded, walking over to a small table near the back of the room to pick up something Aqua could not see. "And before you ask, the resemblance between them isn't very strong at all; the prince took after his mother in that respect, you see, and his father…well, His Majesty has not been in his prime for many years now."

When he came back, the graying man had two cups full of a steaming brown liquid in his hand, and he offered one to Aqua. "Might I ask how you take your coffee, Mistress Aqua?"

"Oh! Um, I'll have it plain if you don't mind." She hoped that this was a reasonable answer; the blue-haired girl had never even heard of coffee before, much less tasted it. Despite Master Eraqus' best efforts to prepare his three apprentices for any situation that they could conceivably encounter during their training, there were some things that one simply needed to learn on one's own.

"But of course," her host replied, placing the cup and the saucer on which it sat on one of her chair's broad armrests. He dropped a few cubes of a strange white substance—_sugar_, she presumed—into his own cup and sat down to have a sip. She picked up the delicate china container, mimicking his movements as she raised it to her chin and took a cautious sip.

She resisted the urge to gag and set the cup down, her face scrunching up in a grimace as a shudder ran through her body.

The duke looked up in concern. "Is something wrong, mademoiselle?"

"Forgive me; the drink is just a little…stronger than what I'm accustomed to."

"I see," he nodded in understanding, taking another sip before frowning at his coffee. "Perhaps my culinary skills need work…"

He set his drink down with a sigh and leaned forward, steepling his fingers as he stared at the floor. "But I believe we are here to discuss something other than the strength of coffee, are we not?"

"That's right. Can you start off from when I was last here? I might have a better chance of helping you to escape this nightmare if I know everything that's happened."

The duke shifted in his chair and removed his fractured monocle, hooking it into place on the right breast of his jacket. "Then you had best make yourself comfortable, mistress; it is a long story to tell. You recall, no doubt, how the prince had sent his servants out across the land in an effort to locate the maiden who had captured his heart at the Grand Ball?"

Aqua nodded. "I overheard your conversation with the guards just before I was allowed inside. You said the ball took place last year?"

"Approximately, at any rate," he answered with a helpless shrug. "It is difficult to keep track of time in this place; there is no sun to measure the progress of the day, the birds do not herald the breaking of the dawn, and our clocks have all ceased to function. Why do you ask?"

"No reason," the young mage nodded, her face composed, neutral, and betraying nothing of the surprise she felt. Had it truly been a full year since she had last seen the light of day? On the one hand, it meant that she had not been trapped in the Realm of Darkness for as long as she feared; but on the other hand it was longer than it had seemed and longer than she had dared to hope, and any number of things could have happened in her absence—not just in the Castle of Dreams, but in all the worlds. "Please continue."

"Very well…as you no doubt remember, my search for the maiden led me to the manor of Lady Tremaine and her daughters Anastasia and Drizella. She tried to pass them both off as she who had danced away the Prince's affections, but the slipper would not fit and I resolved to continue my search elsewhere."

A wistful smile came to the Keybearer's face. "Then I dropped in and asked if I could try it on."

"Indeed." The Grand Duke twirled the hairs of his moustache in contemplation. "I must admit, an explanation for how you came to be present at the Lady's house at that time eludes me to this day. Did the fairy godmother have a hand in it?"

Aqua reached up to rub the back of her neck, curious. "You could say that…but how do you know of the fairy godmother? As far as I could tell, she only approached Cinderella, I and a few others."

"The events of this past year have brought a number of secrets to light, I'm afraid," he explained, an apologetic smile crossing his face. "But that will be explored later. At any rate, you managed to stall my exit long enough for Cinderella to make her appearance—"

"And even when Lady Tremaine tripped you, causing you to drop the slipper and break it, she still had the other one at hand and was able to prove that she had been the maiden."

The Duke cringed briefly at his past mistake, but recovered swiftly and nodded. "Yes, that's true; I had just set out with Mistress Cinderella in my coach, bearing her to the palace, when a monster attacked."

"A monster that Tremaine and her daughters had summoned," Aqua whispered with a frown. She remembered that particular battle quite well; it had been her first encounter with the more powerful strains of Unversed, and her first exposure to how dangerous the creatures could be. The Cursed Carriage had been a formidable opponent for her, the newly-minted Keyblade Master's first test of her abilities in the real world; highly agile on its wheel-like feet, it had rained deadly firebombs down on the clearing and tried to eat her more than once before it had been slain.

Its hostility had not been confined to Cinderella and her saviour, either; Lady Tremaine, Anastasia and Drizella had quickly learned, to their detriment, that even though this particular beast had been crafted from their envy and scorn it owed its loyalty to no one but Vanitas, its creator. The wicked stepmother and her spoiled daughters had met their ends even as they stood gloating over Cinderella, for a stray bomb had landed in their midst and burned them alive.

She shuddered briefly at the memory; bitter and evil as they might have been, they had still been people, and no one deserved to die in such a horrible fashion.

Her train of thought was interrupted then, as the duke cleared his throat. "Did you say something, mademoiselle?"

Aqua shook herself and leaned back in her chair. "No, nothing. So the monster attacked you and Cinderella, you ran back to get my help, and I defeated the beast and saved her…although the Lady Tremaine and her daughters were killed by stray fire during the battle. I believe this was where I made my departure; what happened next?"

"She was married to the prince the very next day." the Duke paused to take a sip of his coffee. "Princess Cinderella had a somewhat difficult time adjusting to the vagaries of palace life, but she adapted rather quickly…albeit in a decidedly unorthodox way. She caused quite a stir during her first few weeks at the palace, countermanding quite a few of the king's preferences and edicts; even so, while his majesty was quite appalled and angry at first, his choler fled in short order once he realized that he actually enjoyed the changes she had made, preferring this new state of affairs to the previous status quo. He warmed to the girl, as did everyone else in the court, and a general mood of good cheer fell over the lands shortly afterward; it was at this point that the creatures which had assailed our kingdom simply disappeared, you see."

Aqua nodded in understanding. _That must have been around the time when we faced Master Xehanort and Vanitas in the Keyblade Graveyard; when I destroyed the __χ__-blade, Vanitas perished as well, and without their master to give them form and substance the Unversed simply ceased to exist._

The Duke, heedless of her introspection, continued with his tale. "A great banquet was thrown in celebration, both to commemorate our Prince's marriage to his new bride and to mark the end of our struggles against the monsters. For the next few months, all was good."

His face turned sour, and he stared sadly into the fire. "Then His Majesty fell ill, contracting a wasting disease that sapped his strength and left him bed-ridden for weeks. The finest doctors and physicians in the land all came at his son's behest, but despite their best efforts nothing could be done; they had never seen such an ailment before, and without any knowledge of its cause the king's malady was beyond their skills to cure. He held on for twenty-seven days and twenty-seven nights, enduring horrid pains and bouts of temporary madness where he forgot who he was, but in the end his majesty passed away."

A soft "Oh" escaped Aqua's lips. "I'm…I'm terribly sorry to hear that."

"Oh, don't be," the duke sighed. "It wasn't your fault, Mistress Aqua; you possess incredible powers, to be sure, but death is the one inviolable constant in this universe. I doubt even that mysterious key of yours could change that outcome."

At these words, Master Keeper appeared unbidden in Aqua's hand. The young Keyblade Master's eyes widened in surprise, unprepared for such an eventuality, but her shock quickly faded to be replaced by a sense of melancholy. _Maybe you're right, and maybe you're wrong; if I had been here, then maybe I could have saved the king's life. It's too late now, of course, but maybe, just maybe…_

Her morbid thoughts came to a shuddering halt as the duke cleared his throat. "Forgive my curiosity, but your key looks…rather different from how it appeared the last time you were here. Is it the same blade, or did you acquire a new one in some fashion?"

A pang of grief ran through the blue-haired mage, as memories of Master Eraqus swelled to the fore. "It's…complicated," she said at length, dismissing the Keyblade back to whence it came. "And it's not that important right now. Could you continue, please?"

The duke seemed uncertain about this, obviously concerned for her wellbeing; he had heard the note of sorrow which had crept into her voice a moment ago, it would appear, and Aqua had no idea how she would respond if he decided to press her on the subject. Fortunately for her sake, he chose to heed her words and continue with his tale.

"The Prince and his bride were devastated, as I'm sure you can imagine; upon being crowned king, his first act was to decree that a period of mourning would be enforced throughout the land. For five days following this proclamation, no children laughed and played in the streets, no minstrels sang and no musicians serenaded, and if people felt cause to smile or express happiness they did so in private. Those were sad, bitter times, make no mistake, but they would only get worse; less than a week after the mourning period had ended, word trickled into the palace of strange creatures lurking in the woods."

Aqua leaned forward in interest, her expression hard. _So this is when it all began…_

"At first, we believed them to be the same monsters which had threatened us almost a year previous," the duke continued, "but as time went on and we began to see them for ourselves, it became clear that while the two groups were similar in some respects, in others they were quite different. Small, creeping things prowled the woods, leering out from the darkness with luminous yellow eyes that never blinked, and they never seemed to sleep unless the sunlight was particularly strong. There were few of them initially, and they contented themselves with lurking at the boundaries of the forest, and had this state of affairs continued we might have written them off as a band of unsettling but otherwise harmless pests.

"Then we began to receive word that the creatures would emerge from the woods under the cover of darkness, and attack the outlying farms at the edges of our territory."

The duke paused to take another sip of his coffee, and Aqua noticed with some concern that the cup was shaking in his hands. When he next spoke, his voice had gone soft and distant as if caught in the grip of some terrible memory, and Aqua had to lean forward just to make sure that she heard him correctly.

"We sent men out to investigate these claims," he whispered, staring into the fire with a haunted look. "They rode out as fast as they could, but by the time the soldiers arrived the farms were empty, deserted. There wasn't a single scrap of evidence to show that a struggle had taken place; it was as if all the people living there had just…disappeared. Bowls of porridge lay uneaten, their contents chilled with an unnatural cold; beds were unmade, and belongings lay in piles as though their owners had been packing for a long journey, but left without their luggage; cattle roamed the pastures unattended, crops grew tall and wild, and most unsettling of all, the sheepdogs our men found whimpered at every sound, and watched the shadows with wide, frightened eyes."

The Duke looked up, turning in his chair to meet Aqua's gaze. "Those dogs were some of the bravest in the land; they had faced down marauding wolves and driven off even the occasional bear without fear. What could have unsettled them so deeply, we wondered at the time; what had they seen that could have reduced them from strong alphas to frightened pups?"

Aqua nodded grimly; she knew all too well what those creatures were capable of, but she had grown used to them during her time in this maddened realm; she had almost forgotten how terrifying they could be, especially to the unfamiliar. "And what happened after that?"

"After that, the creatures became more thorough in their raids. The next time our men were sent out, they found that not even the animals had been spared; the farmstead was a tomb, a silent wasteland. It was not empty, however; before they could leave and report their findings to His Majesty, the creatures leapt from the shadows and attacked them. Only one man survived, out of a group of nearly thirty well-trained guardsmen, and he only managed to do so by dint of the fact that he had been sent to call for help."

He shook his head with a ragged sigh. "You cannot imagine how terrified he was; by the time the messenger reached us, he had not slept in days and had lost most of his weight from running. He refused to speak to His Majesty unless they did so outdoors or in a well-lit room, and he ploughed through his report without much heed for the Prince's questions, instead keeping his gaze and attention fixed on the shadowed corners of the courtyard."

Aqua frowned; she hadn't thought the man's reaction to the shadowy monsters would have been that strong. "Did they fight back, at least?"

"They tried to, he claimed, but their weapons were ineffective; though their blades had been forged by the finest smiths in the kingdom and were sharpened regularly to keep up their edge, their swords and spears passed clean through the creatures like a stone thrown into the air.

"It was at this time that our kingdom was visited by two unsavoury characters," he said with a scowl. "A pair of charlatans; they claimed that they had dealt with these creatures before, and that they could rid our lands of their blight…for a price, of course, albeit one that was far too high. They wanted us to yield Princess Cinderella to their custody, and cede the throne to their rule; naturally, His Majesty refused. They denounced him for a fool and left, and after their departure the attacks grew greater in frequency and severity."

This news gave Aqua pause, and she considered the ramifications inherent to it; if those two people had some control over the creatures—and from the sounds of things, they did—and had wanted Cinderella in exchange for removing them from the Castle of Dreams, then it was possible that they were from another world and had come looking for one of the Princesses of Heart. _But how could they have known about other worlds and hearts of pure Light to begin with?_ she wondered, resting her chin between her thumb and index finger in contemplation. _And for that matter, how were they able to leave their own world without the power of a Keyblade, and how did they come to command these creatures in the first place? Did they have some connection to Master Xehanort and his plans for Kingdom Hearts?_

"Who were these people?" she asked at length.

The Duke ruffled his moustache. "They never gave us their names, but it was impossible to miss the fact that they were foreign; the smarter of the pair and evident leader was a thin, fay woman with sallow skin who dressed entirely in black, and her partner—no, not partner; perhaps henchman is the better word—was some manner of corpulent beast-man, like an obese lion that had learned to stand on its hind legs and talk. The woman claimed to be a fellow noble, the ruler of a distant land known as the Forbidden Mountain, but I've never heard of such a place."

Sudden realization struck the blue-haired Keyblade Master, and her eyes widened in shock. _It couldn't be…_

The Duke noticed her distress and frowned. "Is something wrong, mademoiselle?"

Aqua shook herself, composing her face into a neutral mask. She couldn't jump to conclusions just yet; she needed confirmation. "This woman," she asked, hoping against hope that her host was not about to confirm her suspicions, "did she have horns and a gold staff, and was there an evil-looking raven perched on her shoulder?"

He blinked. "Why yes, Mistress Aqua. Have you met this woman before?"

"Unfortunately," she sighed. "Her name is Maleficent; she comes from a very distant land known as the Enchanted Dominion, and she is a sorceress of terrible power. Last year, my friends and I visited that land in search of someone else, and while we didn't find that person we did learn that he was in league with Maleficent; they were looking for seven maidens of pure heart in an attempt to open a door and obtain great power, and if they had been successful it's possible they could have used this power to rule the world."

"And…Princess Cinderella is one of these maidens?"

The Duke sounded dubious, but Aqua knew that he trusted her; no matter what he might think on the subject, he would accept her explanation for now. This knowledge gave the young mage some comfort, and she continued. "Yes, though we thought she was safe; the other man did not seem to know of her existence, and Maleficent lacked the ability to leave her dominion and reach other lands…or so we thought. At any rate, a similar maiden—Princess Aurora, of the Enchanted Dominion—had fallen into Maleficent's hands, but we managed to rescue the girl and defeat the sorceress. I believed the witch to have been beaten, but it seems I was wrong; this doesn't bode well for Aurora, either…"

She paused, cocking her head to one side. "I don't know who this beast-man is, though; when I last encountered her, Maleficent had been operating alone.

The Duke pursed his lips in evident displeasure. "I see. Well at any rate, the Prince spurned this Maleficent's offer, and after she and her grotesque assistant departed, the creatures began to attack more often and in greater numbers. His Majesty assembled a great host of men-at-arms, a thousand strong, to drive them back to the shadows and take back the lands they had pillaged, while Princess Cinderella supervised the evacuation efforts and instructed the people to take refuge within the castle itself.

"Would that the former had done as well as the latter," he sighed despondently. "While Princess Cinderella was successful in her endeavours, His Majesty was not; I rode out with him at the head of his host, and we met the creatures in battle at the Fields of Flanders. Alas, the enemy was every bit as formidable and implacable as we had heard; our weapons had only a negligible effect on the fiends, while their claws and talons proved quite lethal to men. Worse, as the slaughter wore on, we noticed that there seemed to be no end to the monsters; while we had outnumbered them by nearly four to one when the battle began, their numbers appeared to wax even as ours waned, until the battlefield seemed awash with a limitless horde of writhing, wriggling black monstrosities."

The Duke paused for a moment.

"It was the most curious thing," he said at length, his voice having gone soft and quiet. "Every time they slew one of our men, they would do it in the exact same way in spite of the large array of weapons at their disposal. They would plunge a hand into their victim's chest, and he would freeze up with a look of absolute horror on his face. Seconds later, they would pull their hand out, leaving no injury, no blood, not even disturbed clothing to show that the soldier had ever been touched; in their grasp they would clutch a strange object which I could only describe as a pink crystal in the shape of a heart. They would break this crystal, and then the victim's body would disappear; sometimes they left clothes and armour behind, and other times they vanished altogether."

Aqua nodded with a frown. _So the monsters fed on hearts, it would seem…_

There was one detail that did not make sense, however. "If your weapons had no effect, and the monsters were wearing you down so quickly, how did you manage to escape?"

For once, a genuine smile came to the Duke's face. "That, Mistress Aqua, is where our friend the fairy godmother came in. the battle—or rout, I suppose you could say—lasted for little more than an hour; by that time, the Prince's host had been reduced to a paltry thirty warriors, and we were surrounded on all sides by a seething tide of inky flesh and gleaming amber eyes. It seemed certain that we would perish, when all of a sudden what seemed to be a soap bubble floated down from the sky to land at our feet. After bobbing in the air for a few seconds, it touched the ground and burst. When that happened, a great light sprang up from nowhere to blind me momentarily; when my sight returned, the creatures stood in obvious disarray, seemingly unaware of our presence, and the fairy godmother stood before us.

"She said a few words—bitterly blustery boo, I think it was—and suddenly we were in the castle courtyard, confused but alive and safe…for the moment."

His expression darkened. "Again, however, the Prince was not so fortunate; he had been wounded during the battle, scratched across the chest by a monster's claws, and although he had not had his…heart, for lack of a better term…plucked out like the other soldiers who had been slain during the battle, he collapsed shortly after our unexpected arrival at the castle. While a cursory examination revealed him to be alive, we could not rouse him from his slumber, and he has lain inert in his bedchambers ever since; as a result, the responsibility of governing and defending our kingdom fell squarely on Princess Cinderella's shoulders."

Again he sighed. "She tried her best, she truly did, but it was an utterly monumental task which had been afforded her, and one to which she was ill-suited; the depredations of our monstrous adversaries only worsened her situation. The days which followed, as I'm sure you can imagine, were among the worst in our kingdom's history; our lands were falling to the creatures one by one, day by day, and what soldiers, guardsmen and men-at-arms remained in the land were few in number and weak in spirit; by this point, the fact that regular weapons were completely ineffectual against the fiends had become common knowledge."

"So what did she do?" Aqua asked.

"The princess was determined to save as many people as she could; every day, she would take a small company of bodyguards and venture out to the furthest territories which had not yet fallen to the shadows. She would then ferry any survivors back to the castle, protecting them with the assistance of the fairy godmother's magic…though to my surprise, it seemed that she had a bit of magic of her own."

The blue-haired Keyblade Master frowned. "How do you mean?"

"Well, during one of these rescue missions, some of the creatures broke through the cordon of guards and lunged at the princess and her protectorate. It seemed as though her efforts to save the people had been for naught, and that she would perish there, but when she held up her hands a strange curtain of light sprang up, and when the beasts touched it they exploded in a thick cloud of acrid black smoke. She seemed just as surprised as I, but in short order she was conjuring radiant shields and intense rays of light with a wave of her hand, protecting her charges while at the same time obliterating the beasts which hounded them."

The Duke shook his head, and his next words were heavy with naked awe. "It was a miracle from God."

Aqua suspected otherwise; as a Princess of Heart, Cinderella was without even the slightest trace of darkness. Perhaps the stress of being attacked by a creature made of nothing but darkness had awakened some latent power within her, allowing her to tap into her pure, inner light for defensive as well as offensive purposes. Still, she decided not to challenge the Duke's belief; his people had lost enough already, and he didn't need to lose his faith as well. "It certainly sounds like a miracle, alright. Please continue."

"Very well, then. Princess Cinderella continued with her efforts to rescue the populace from these monsters and bring them back to the safety of the castle, but after a while her activities began to take a toll; the stress of driving back and destroying these monsters seemed to sap at her vitality and erode her strength, a deplorable situation which was not helped by her stubborn refusal to get even a moment's rest. You see, her journeys to and from the surviving territories often took all day, exhausting her with both the time spent travelling and the exertion of fighting off the creatures; after a few days, it seemed she could barely think straight. In spite of this, she insisted—quite firmly, I might add—that she not be allowed to rest and continue to save her charges, no matter the cost; if you ask me, she seemed determined to prove to the naysayers amongst us that she was fit to rule in her husband's stead, although she may have gone too far in these efforts.

"At any rate," he continued, "she managed to shepherd a good number of people to the safety of the castle; most of them presently dwell in the basements and cellars, for lack of space and for their own safety."

That last word brought another frown to Aqua's face. "What do you mean by that? I noticed the magic barrier over the door to the main hall, along with the barricades; between them, that should be enough to keep the creatures out. So what else could there possibly be in this castle for these refugees to be afraid of?"

"Ah; that was an astute observation on your part, Mistress Aqua." The Duke removed his monocle from his face, produced a dirty cloth from somewhere on his person and began to clean the fractured lenses with careful, cautious movements; from the troubled expression on his face, it was clear that he had been afraid to broach this subject by himself, yet at the same time he was relieved to get this off his chest. "Well, after a few weeks of the princess' philanthropic endeavours, she had saved as many people as she could; at the same time, however, our lands in their entirety had fallen to the monsters. She knew, as did we all, that it was only a matter of time before they eventually marched on the castle itself; and we all knew, alas, that even with her powers and those of the fairy godmother it was a battle that we could not hope to win. As a final effort to save her people and spare us the horrors sure to come, Princess Cinderella combined her powers with those of the fairy godmother to create a mighty barrier which would keep out all but the strongest of our monstrous enemies.

"Unfortunately, her success was not without cost; shortly after erecting this divine barrier she lapsed into a coma state, not at all unlike the slumber in which the prince still rests, and despite our best efforts she cannot and will not awaken. Soon after she lost consciousness, the sky—which had been sunny and clear mere moments before—was engulfed by vast storm clouds and turned black as night. The winds howled, the earth shook, a strange black sphere appeared over the castle…and then suddenly, we found ourselves here, in this dark place."

_So that's how they arrived…_ "How long ago did this happen?" the young mage inquired.

The Duke shrugged helplessly, shaking his head. "We don't know, I'm sad to say; it's impossible to keep track of time in this hellish realm. It could have been days since we arrived, or years; either of these guesses could be correct, but they could both be wrong, as well."

To illustrate his point, he gestured towards something over Aqua's shoulder. Curious, the blue-haired woman turned around and glanced at the wall behind her chair.

Her cerulean gaze fell upon an immaculate grandfather clock, tucked into a corner beside the fireplace; shadows flickered across its surface in the light of the dancing flames, casting the ornate carvings and designs of its surface into stark relief, and in this chiaroscuro riot the hands, numbers and inner workings of the timepiece were barely visible. Even so, Aqua could see that its hands were inert, and that the metronomic pendulum did not sway; and even without these visual clues, she could have inferred from the clock's silence that it had ceased to function.

Taking note of the time displayed on the eminent clock's face, Aqua tilted her head and arched an eyebrow in confusion. The Duke had said it was sunny out when the storm had begun and they arrived in the Realm of Darkness, but from the position of the hands, it had stopped working at quarter past five—which meant that either they had arrived in the morning, in which case the duke had either forgotten or was lying, or that they had entered the dark world in the evening.

Either way, it was a marked contradiction. Aqua turned her gaze back to her host, pointing at the clock over her shoulder. "Did this clock stop just after you arrived?"

"Yes, but there's no point in looking to its numbers to gauge when we arrived," he replied, his tone despondent. "Look again."

Intrigued, Aqua did as she was instructed…and her eyes widened in surprise when she saw that the clock hands had moved. Where the hour hand had been just off of five and the minute hand had been fixed at quarter past, now both of them lay squarely at the position of twelve.

"It changes every time you look at it," the Duke explained wearily. "All the timepieces are like this, even the ones which operate on different principles. The hourglasses, for example; I watched one like a hawk until it had run dry and all the sand had collected in the lower half of the device, but when I turned away for one second and looked back, all of the sand was in the upper canister and it had begun to run again."

_Interesting,_ she mused silently. _Obviously there's some sort of time dilation effect involved, but I didn't detect any temporal magic at work. Maybe this phenomenon is a natural property of the Realm of Darkness…_

After a moment, the blue-haired warrior mage shook herself; this wasn't the time to get distracted with idle conjecture on the properties, be they mundane or magical, of this dimension. "This still doesn't answer my original question."

"I am aware of that, mistress; I was just coming to the answer you seek. Since we arrived, there have been a number of disturbing…incidents. The barrier is doing an excellent job at the moment, but it isn't perfect; small intrusions and outbreaks have occurred in other parts of the castle, though we have managed to repel these with aid of the fairy godmother's magic, and the number of refugees has been gradually, inexplicably yet inexorably dwindling for reasons we cannot explain."

The Duke sighed, and daubed his brow with a kerchief before continuing. "When the storm first abated, there were more than two hundred men, women and children taking refuge within these halls; now, they number less than fifty. I don't know if this is a result of predations by the creatures or the result of simply existing in this God-forsaken place, but regardless of the cause it is happening; the refugees would go to sleep all at once, and when they awoke a good deal of them would be missing, as if they had vanished into thin air.

"At this point, everyone is confused and scared. Tempers are starting to fray amongst my men, and some of the more belligerent members of their ranks have almost come to blows, both with each other and the innocents which they are nominally supposed to protect. I am at my wit's end trying to uphold order in these troubling times, and I'm concerned that thoughts of sedition are beginning to form in their minds; you see, with both the prince and his bride comatose, as the Grand Duke it falls to me to provide leadership for what remains of our kingdom. Alas, I will not lie—I have neither Princess Cinderella's determination, nor His Majesty's strength and courage; if the men decided to revolt, I imagine that few of their ranks would side with me."

Abruptly, the Duke stood up and clapped his hands together. "Well, I believe that that covers just about everything, and I've taken up enough of your time; you've doubtless had a long and difficult journey in order to reach this place, Mistress Aqua. Come—let us find you some apartments."

* * *

And with that, the Grand Duke led Aqua in search of a place for her to rest and call it a night.

But these were not the only events which had taken place during the past few hours; even as the blue-haired mage had been informed off all which had happened since her last visit to the Castle of Dreams, the palace guards had been making their rounds.

Normally these men patrolled the vast marble corridors in pairs, the better to deal with anything that might be lurking in the shadows or raise the alarm if an outbreak of creatures occurred; but Francois Bonniface was in a foul mood this night, and unless they had a strong desire to have their teeth broken on his knuckles, his fellow guardsmen knew well enough to keep their distance until his temper cooled.

Francois was a big, strapping young man at eighteen years, stronger by far than most of his peers, and athletic as well. He took great pride in his appearance, and it was often said that gentry mistook him for a lad of noble birth due to his statuesque physique and well-groomed hair. He was pious as could be, attending church every Sunday without fail and always ready to do the Lord's bidding. He was every bit the paragon of masculinity that his peers—and he himself—believed him to be.

He was also a dimwitted, arrogant, short-tempered and often violent thug.

He could have had any woman in the land without protest on their part, were it not for his frequent and scathingly disparaging remarks about what he termed 'the weaker sex'. He had no patience for strategy, and when forced to play games of chess, cards or similar pastimes by his peers—which, thankfully, was infrequent—he would rant, flip the table over and blacken the eyes of whoever beat him whenever he lost—which, regrettably, happened quite often.

His foul mood and short fuse had not been helped by the current crisis facing the kingdom, especially given the poor management on the Duke's part. Francois felt that the strong had a divine right to rule, second only to true nobility which, in his skewed perspective, the Grand Duke was not, and it irked him that he had to protect and kowtow to such a weakling. He had made his displeasure known one day by introducing the moustachioed old fart's right eye to his right fist, shattering his pompous monocle in the process; only the quick action of his erstwhile 'colleagues' had prevented him from blinding the old man altogether, or worse.

Francois resented his fellow guardsmen for their interference, a resentment that he took out on the snivelling, mewling refugees with impunity and a distressing regularity. What right did they have to be complaining about a lack of food and water, anyway? _He_ was the one keeping them safe, so he should be the one with the largest share of what little conserves and reserves remained; the ungrateful snots should be thanking him for gracing their miserable, insignificant lives with his majestic presence.

His dour train of thought was promptly derailed as a sudden, soft noise ghosted out from around a bend in the hallway a short distance ahead, and as he drew his sword from its scabbard a loud clang echoed from beyond the corner. If it was one of those monsters, he was in trouble; he'd seen how quickly they could scurry across the ground, and even with his superior stamina and athletic build he doubted that he would be able to escape if the decided to give chase. He would just have to fight, and go down in a blaze of glory.

"_Hah!"_ he cried, leaping around the corner with his sword held above his head in preparation for a devastating overhand slash.

A tiny little mouse looked up from the hunk of cheese it had been gnawing and squeaked at him, indignantly; beyond it, a suite of highly-polished plate mail had tumbled from its fixture in a shallow alcove and scattered its parts across the floor.

Francois remained poised like that for a few moments, his expression dumbstruck as he realized what must have happened. The rodent must have knocked the suit over somehow while searching for a place to nibble on its new meal; how that had happened precisely, he could not say, but what other explanation was there?

His face turned beet red and contorted with anger. He must have looked like a damn fool, poised to bring his sword down on the harmless little mouse with all the strength and fury he could muster; he sincerely hoped that nobody saw that, for he would never be able to live this humiliation down…not without knocking a few snickering heads together, at least.

"I'll teach you to make a fool out of me," he hissed, and aimed a kick at the damn rodent. It squeaked in alarm and took off like a shot, scurrying into the safety of a nearby mouse hole before the brutish guard could even begin to swing his leg forward. He chuckled darkly and sheathed his sword; stupid thing wouldn't make _that_ mistake again.

Francois resumed his patrol of the basement without preamble. Damn mice…the castle was chockfull of the filthy little rodents of late, bringing God knows what kind of diseases and parasites with them; worse, because the princess had taken an unusual fancy to the creatures, they all wore intricately-stitched little clothes, hats and shoes, as if to mock the real people living in these halls.

An ugly smile spread across his face at the thought of the prince's bride. Princess Cinderella…now _there_ was a woman for him. She was incredibly beautiful, she was graceful, her voice was to die for, she could cook, she was demure in her husband's presence, as was only proper…and while she had an annoying tendency to speak her mind on most subjects, Francois was confident that, had she been his wife, he would be able to beat that tendency out of her.

It was no secret that he lusted after the princess, though before this madness had begun, he had at least had the decency not to be overt and kept his foul little thoughts to himself. Now, though, she was widowed—and let's face it, His Majesty was never gonna wake up; it's time everybody accepted that—and, given the chaos occurring in the outside world, she would need a strong man at her side in order to rule…whether she wanted one or not. He would have had his way with her already, were it not for the two men armed with halberds who stood guard outside her door at all times; dimwitted, vain and arrogant he may have been, but Francois was not so absorbed with his imagined superiority that he believed he would be able to reach them without being skewered if it came to a fight.

Yes, a strong man was needed to rule this kingdom; a strong man or a noble. The Grand Duke, as far as he knew, was neither of these things, and in Francois' eyes that foppish old fart was unworthy to take charge. He knew that more than a few of his fellow guardsmen shared this sentiment, but he also knew that they were outnumbered by those who supported the Duke or simply opposed Francois himself taking power; if he wanted to take the throne, the coup would be neither swift, nor bloodless, and with the constant outbreaks he couldn't afford to be undermanned.

The thuggish guard stopped and leaned against a wall. "Damn fine pickle this mess is," he grumbled, punctuating that statement by shoving a finger up his nose to go digging for gold.

_Den maybe it's time ya did sumthin about it,_ a deep, crass-sounding voice chuckled from somewhere over his shoulder.

Eyes widening in alarm, Francois drew his sword and spun around, swinging the blade in a deadly arc that would take off the head of anyone foolish enough to be standing behind him. It met nothing but air, however, and a quick glance in either direction confirmed that the hallway was empty.

"Who's there?" he barked. "Show yourself, vile spirit!"

Peels of dry, dirty laughter echoed from all around in response to the guard's demands. _Calm down, Frankie; you an' me, we's got a lot in common, see?_

"I do not see, and I've no patience for riddles; say what you've come here to say, demon, or leave me be!"

_Ya don' half ta lie ta me, Frankie boy; we's in da same boat. See, I know dat ya want Cinderella fer yerself, and dat ya tink you should be da guy in charge, an you know sumthin'? I agree witcha._

A cloud of dirty grey smoke exploded into being right before Francois' face without any warning whatsoever, and the guard stumbled backward with a cry of alarm. When it cleared a moment later, an altogether inhuman face was floating in mid-air at eye level, grinning smugly at the startled thug. Pointed ears stuck out from the top of its head at odd angles, and a pair of enormous canines, so large and thick that calling them tusks would not be an exaggeration, jutted from a fat bottom lip in a marked under bite; its upper lip, by contrast, was thin and split down the middle like the muzzle of a dog or a cat—an apt comparison, given the shiny black snoot which sat in the center of this bestial face. Black fur covered the upper half of the figure's head, lending further credence to the idea that this was neither man nor beast, but some unholy combination of the two.

"I know you, demon," Francois growled. "You were the lapdog of that witch, the one who brought this ruin upon us all!"

_Ey! I resent dat, Frankie; I'll have ya know dat I'm nobody's dog. I'm a cat, see._

"I care not, fiend! Give me one good reason why I should listen to your silver-tongued lies."

The feline face grinned. _Ya want Cinderella. I can help ya get dat. Ya wanna rule. I can help ya get dat, too. Power, women, worlds ta rule…it kin all be yers, Frankie, an' fer little effort on yer part, ta boot._

Francois frowned, lowering his sword a few inches. "What do you mean, worlds?"

_Exactly what I said, Frankie; WORLDS. All dis an much more, it kin all be yers ta own an rule as ya see fit. Heck, ye'll even be able ta control dem monsters what been attackin' you guys nonstop o'er da last few months; den no one'll be able ter challenge ya._

That sounded rather enticing, Francois had to admit. "But…the people," he protested half-heartedly.

_Who d'ya think ye're foolin', Frankie?_ The face scoffed. _We both know dat ya don' care about da pour, needy yahoos or Duke Glass Jaw upstairs; when ye're rulin' a world o' yer own, ya won't halfta put up wit' em anymore!_

A smile spread slowly across Francois' face, and the guard sheathed his sword. "What must I do, then?"

The face grinned. _We'll be getting' ter dat inna moment. So, we got us a deal, Frankie boy?_

"Deal, mister…?"

_Da name, Frankie boy, is Cap'n Pete._

* * *

Unnoticed by either of these two, the mouse which Francois had nearly kicked a moment earlier stood just within the entrance of its mouse hole, watching the devious bargain with no small amount of trepidation. These guys were planning something very, very bad, and it would hurt lots of people—Cinderellie foremost among them. He had to get help somehow, but from where?

Then he recalled a conversation he had had with his friend Gus earlier that day; the chubby, perpetually-hungry fellow had cheerfully informed him that a strange girl with odd clothes and blue hair had shown up at the castle somehow and promised to help the Duke find a way out of this crazy place.

While he had dismissed this story at first—Gus did have a tendency to run his mouth about nonsensical things, after all—he had to admit, the description sounded a lot like that girl Aqua, a friend of Cinderelly and Ven-Ven. If anyone could stop these bad men before they could complete their evil scheme, it would be her.

His mind made up at last, Jaq ducked into the mouse hole and scurried off in the direction of the palace's upper floors; Gus had figured that was where she would be staying, and for once the red-clad mouse had to agree with his portly, talkative friend.

"Zug-zug, Aqua; gonna save Cinderellie!"

* * *

**A/N:** And that, as the saying goes, is the end of that chapter. What terrible scheme is Pete concocting, and what roll will Francois play in it? Will Jaq manage to warn Aqua in time? Can Cinderella be saved? Shall that miserable louse get the comeuppance he so richly deserves? Will the Duke sigh yet again? Will the fairy godmother actually an appearance?

Tune in in two weeks' time to find out; in the meanwhile, feel free to click that purple little button down in the corner and leave whatever thoughts, commentary or criticisms you may have, should you feel so inclined.


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